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BR  165  .S53  1903 

Shahan,  Thomas  Joseph, 

1857- 

1932. 

The  beginnings  of 

nVxy-^   e-l-  4  an-i  i- xt 

THE  BEGINNINGS  OF 
CHRISTIANITY. 


BY 


Veey  Rev.  THOMAS  J.  SHAHAN,  S.T.D.,  J.U.L., 

Professor  of  Church  History  in  the  Catholic  University^ 
Washington, 


NEW^JYORK,  CINCINNATI,  CHICAGO: 

be:k2:ige:r  brothers, 

IHnters  to  the  Holy  Apostolic  See. 


IRibtl  ©bstat. 


EEMIGIUS  LAFORT, 

Censor  Librorum. 


ITmprimatur. 


t  JNO.  M.  FARLEY, 

Archbishop  of  Neio  York. 


New  York,  July  9,  1903. 


Copyriglit,  1903,  by  Benziger  Brothers. 


CARISSIMO  .  PATRI 
ANTIQVAE  .  INTEGRITATIS  •  VIRO 


PREFACE. 


The  studies  and  discourses  that  are  herein  offered 
to  the  public  deal  with  some  general  conditions  of 
Christian  Hfe  in  the  first  three  centuries  of  our  era. 
Though  already  printed,  at  intervals  and  amid  the 
pressure  of  grave  academic  duties,  it  is  hoped  that  a 
certain  unity  of  doctrine,  purpose,  and  interest  will 
not  be  found  wanting  to  their  collection  as  a  series. 
In  one  way  or  another  they  illustrate  certain  phases 
and  circumstances  of  those  wonderful  centuries  before 
Constantine  the  Great,  when  the  constitution  and 
the  institutions  of  the  new  rehgious  society  were  de- 
veloping on  all  sides  within  the  vast  Empire  of  Rome. 
The  teachings  of  Jesus  Christ  were  the  pure,  sweet 
leaven  that  permeated  the  decaying  and  unhappy 
society  of  antiquity,  saved  from  its  mass  of  corruption 
some  germs  of  goodness  and  truth,  of  beauty  and 
justice,  and  strengthened  the  State  against  those 
shocks  that  would  otherwise  have  reduced  it  to  pri- 
maeval barbarism.  A  perennial  charm  must  therefore 
attach  to  any  narrative  of  the  problems  and  vicissi- 
tudes of  this  era.  This  is  particularly  true  of  the 
sufferings  of  the  infant  churches,  and  the  social  changes 
their  rapid  growth  could  not  fail  to  work  in  the  Roman 
society  that  seemed  to  contain  them,  but  of  which, 

vii 


viii  PREFACE. 

unknown  to  it,  they  were  themselves  the  containing 
and  sustaining  soul,  according  to  an  admirable  saying 
of  the  anonymous  author  of  the  Letter  to    Diognetus. 

It  is  not  without  some  diffidence  and  a  clear  sense 
of  the  shortcomings  of  these  pages  that  the  author 
commits  them  to  the  indulgence  of  his  readers. 

At  the  same  time  he  seizes  the  occasion  to  thank 
the  American  Catholic  Quarterly  Review,  the  Ave  Maria, 
the  Josephite,  the  Catholic  Times,  the  New  Century, 
and  the  Catholic  University  Bulletin  for  the  courteous 
permission  to  reprint  articles  that  appeared  originally 
in  those  publications. 

Thomas  J.  Shahan. 

Catholic  University  of  America, 

Washington,  D.  C,  July  15,  1903. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Preface • vii 

The  Beginnings  of  Christianity 7 

St.  Paul  :  Teacher  of  the  Nations 55 

A  Bishop  of  Rome  in   the    Time   of   Domitian  (a.d. 

81-96)  81 

The  Christian  Martyrs   op  Lyons  and  Vienne  (a.d. 

177) 103 

Slavery  and  Free  Labor  in  Pagan  Rome 121 

The  Origin  op  Christmas.   137 

Women  in  the  Early  Christian  Communities 157 

Women  in  Pagan  Antiquity 167 

St.  Agnes  of  Rome 181 

The  Church  and  the  Empire  (a.d.  250-313) 211 

I.  (a)  In  the  West 219 

(6)  In  the  Orient 226 

(c)  Constituents  op  the  Christian  Society 238 

II.  Causes  op  the  Rapid  Spread  op  Christianity.  242 

A  Christian  Pompeii 265 

The  ' '  Roman  Africa  "  op  Gaston  Boissibr 311 

The  Columbus  op  the  Catacombs 363 

Alphabetical  Index 441 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHEISTIANITT. 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

There  are  not  wanting  reasons  of  a  modern  and 
immediate  nature  which  make  it  henceforth  useful 
and  consoHng  to  reflect  on  the  earhest  history  of  the 
Church,  and  in  a  special  manner  on  the  period  of  her 
foundation  by  the  apostles  and  their  successors. 
The  nineteenth  century  saw  the  almost  complete  loss 
of  every  external  advantage  that  Catholicism  had 
acquired  through  popular  affection  and  public  pohcy 
since  the  days  of  Constantino.  The  French  Revolu- 
tion was  like  a  hurricane,  after  which  only  the  hulk 
of  the  ^^Navicella"  floated  on  the  troubled  waters  of 
human  life.  Within  one  generation  the  mysteries 
of  several  ancient  Oriental  civilizations  have  been 
unveiled  with  a  detail  and  an  accuracy  almost  be- 
yond belief.  Egypt,  Babylon,  Assyria,  and  remote 
India  have  yielded  up  with  their  languages  an  exten- 


8  THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

sive  knowledge  of  their  history  and  their  institutions. 
The  remotest  prehistory  of  the  peoples  of  Europe  has 
been  laid  bare,  and  in  the  process  have  arisen  noble 
sciences  Hke  philology,  anthropology,  and  ethnology. 
Scholarly  travel  has  chosen  for  its  special  object  the 
rudest  embryonic  beginnings  of  human  culture  in 
every  zone  and  clime.  Thus  we  find  ourselves  in 
presence  of  an  historical  temper  of  mind  that  is  very 
general,  and  whose  first  query  is  the  natural  and  sal- 
utary one  concerning  the  origin  of  things.  Epochs 
of  humanity,  Hke  the  stages  of  the  earth's  growth, 
have  each  their  own  cachet.  In  a  critical  and  crea- 
tive age,  with  so  Httle  left  of  the  simple  unques- 
tioning habit  of  faith,  it  was  impossible  that  the  origin 
of  so  vast  an  institution  as  Christianity  should  not 
engage  the  attention  of  a  multitude  of  students.  It 
was  impossible,  too,  that  there  should  not  follow  a 
great  diversity  of  views  and  opinions  according  as 
bias,  heredity,  prejudice,  human  weakness,  or  insuffi- 
cient knowledge  affected  the  mind  of  the  historical 
critic. 

The  soil  of  Rome,  long  neglected,  has  given  up  a 
multitude  of  monuments  of  a  primitive  Christian 
society  that  goes  back  without  question  to  the  years 
that  immediately  followed  Christ's  death.  And  the 
interpretation  of  these  wonderful  remnants  of  an 
early  Christian  community  has  again  caUed  the  at- 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY,  9 

tention  of  scholars  and  travellers  to  the  first  days  of 
that  same  society  when  it  was  spreading,  silently  but 
rapidly,  through  every  ward  of  the  Mediterranean 
cosmopolis,  and  even  beyond,  into  lands  where  the 
speech  and  the  writ  of  Rome  did  not  run. 

Then,  too,  the  steady,  consistent  disintegration  of 
the  original  bases  of  Protestantism,  and  the  infinite 
discussion  which  that  process  has  called  up  regard- 
ing the  books  of  the  New  Testament  and  the  primi- 
tive elements  of  Christian  faith,  have  not  failed  to 
bring  into  evidence  the  teachings,  the  works,  and  the 
writings  of  many  apostoUc  men,  and  to  place  before 
the  eye  of  the  imagination  the  fields  in  which  they  la- 
bored. No  doubt,  the  apphcation  to  the  science  of 
history  of  the  methods  of  the  study  of  the  natural 
sciences  has  largely  furthered  this  remarkable  move- 
ment. But  many  will  believe  that  the  incredible 
resurrection  of  the  CathoUc  Church  within  this  cen- 
tury, and  especially  her  growth  in  North  America,  are 
to  be  counted  appreciable  motives  in  the  awakening 
of  curiosity  as  to  the  first  establishment  of  Chris- 
tianity in  the  Old  World.  Nor  must  we  omit  the  far- 
reaching  influence  of  certain  sociological  teachings 
that  contravene  Christianity,  plainly  deny  or  ehmi- 
nate  its  essential  principles,  criticise  its  economico- 
social  history,  and  thereby  lay  the  axe  at  the  root  of 
our  modern  society,  which  still  presupposes  as  basic 


10  THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

and  organic  no  few  Christian  principles,  beliefs,  in- 
stitutions, and  habits  of  thought. 

Neither  the  sixteenth  nor  the  eighteenth  century 
fulfilled  the  brilHant  academic  promises  of  ^^fehcitas" 
that  each  made  to  mankind.  What  they  offered  as 
final  theology  and  final  philosophy  has  fallen  into  the 
same  moral  bankruptcy  that  Mr.  Mallock  and  M: 
Brunetiere  are  now  predicting  of  dogmatic  Protes- 
tantism and  the  self-sufficiency  of  the  natural  sciences: 
The  result  is  a  certain  not  unnatural  reaction  in  favor 
of  that  aged  and  universal  institution  which  has  been 
the  mother  and  the  nurse  of  all  modern  societies,  and 
which  still  goes  on  its  beneficent  way,  with  the  same 
sure  power,  the  same  generous  bestowal  of  peace 
and  joy,  of  rest  and  consolation,  of  private  and  pub- 
lic weal,  in  every  society  where  it  is  left  free  to  dis- 
play its  mandate  as  the  representative  of  Jesus 
Christ.  Hence  the  cries  of  disappointment  which  so 
multiply  on  all  sides,  disappointment  with  the  pre- 
posterous claims  of  mere  knowledge  as  the  power  of 
salvation,  with  the  transient  victories  of  false  and 
misleading  philosophies,  with  the  earth  as  a  sufficient 
abiding-place  for  man.  The  very  absolutism  and 
arrogance  of  such  contentions  have  led  to  the  quick 
demonstration  of  their  emptiness  or  insufficiency — 
they  were  like  leaky  cisterns  or  broken  reeds,  useless 
in  the  hour  of  need,  or  hke  those  desert  apparitions 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY,  11 

that  promise  water  and  shade  and  cool  breezes,  but 
in  reahty  offer  to  the  parched  traveller  only  the  same 
flaming  horizon,  the  same  dreary  waste  of  sand  as 
before.  And  in  proportion  as  this  temper  of  disap- 
pointment spreads  and  finds  expression,  so  must 
increase  respect  and  admiration  for  the  Catholic 
Church,  which,  alone  of  human  institutions,  has  never 
been  blown  about  by  every  gust  of  doctrine,  since  she 
possesses  in  herself  the  needed  ballast  of  conviction, 
a  sure  criterion  of  what  is  true,  useful,  permanent, 
adaptable,  and  assimilable  in  the  general  experience 
of  mankind. 

For  such  and  similar  reasons  the  story  of  her  foun- 
dation and  first  growth  will  always  have  a  profound 
human  interest  and  value.  There  can  be  nothing 
more  worthy  of  attention  than  the  little  band  of  apos- 
tles as  they  confront  the  orhis  terrarum — the  Grseco- 
Roman  world.  Nor  can  there  be  anything  more 
instructive  and  consoling  than  to  learn  by  what 
means  and  against  what  odds  their  immediate  suc- 
cessors planted  the  Christian  society  in  every  corner 
of  that  ancient  world;  by  what  a  combination  of  pub- 
lic and  private  force  this  purely  spiritual  society  was 
opposed;  how  it  flourished  in  itself  and  developed 
organically  its  constitution,  despite  all  obstacles  from 
within  and  without ;  finally,  how  it  shattered  or  sur- 
vived every  opposition,  sat  coequal  upon  the  throne 


12  THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

of  the  Csesars  and  divided  with  them  the  allegiance 
of  mankind. 

I. 

When  the  apostles  went  forth  to  teach  all  nations 
the  doctrine  of  the  crucified  Jesus,  nearly  all  earthly- 
power  was  possessed  by  the  City  of  Rome.  In  the 
course  of  eight  hundred  years  she  had  grown  from  a 
Httle  stone  fort  on  the  Palatine  to  the  most  powerful 
and  perfect  state  the  world  has  yet  seen.  From  the 
Atlantic  to  the  Euphrates,  from  the  Rhine  and  the 
Danube  to  the  Cataracts  of  the  Nile,  her  will  was  su- 
preme; and  if  she  recognized  these  hmits,  it  was 
because  beyond  them  there  was  little  worth  fighting 
for.  Step  by  step,  piecemeal,  she  had  put  together 
this  massa  imperii,  subduing  first  the  little  towns 
in  the  surrounding  plains  and  hills,  and  then  breaking 
in  turn  the  power  of  Macedonia  and  Carthage,  of 
Mediterranean  Asia  and  Parthia,  of  Northern  Africa 
and  Egypt,  until  there  remained  but  one  symbol  of 
universal  dominion — the  Eagles  of  Rome;  one  su- 
preme owner  of  the  habitable  earth  and  arbiter  of 
civiHzed  mankind — the  Roman  people.  By  cen- 
turies of  self-sacrifice  and  endurance,  by  prodigies  of 
patience  and  wisdom,  by  a  rock-hke  confidence  in 
their  city,  by  a  kind  of  kenosis  of  self  in  favor  of  the 
common  weal,  by  frugahty  and  foresight,  these  shep- 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  13 

herds,  herders,  vintners,  and  kitchen-gardeners  made 
themselves  heirs  of  the  vast  immemorial  Oriental  des- 
potisms of  Egypt,  Assyria,  and  Parthia,  with  a  hun- 
dred minor  kingdoms.  The  same  virtues  made  them 
the  masters  of  Gaul,  Spain,  and  Britain,  i.e.,  of  the 
most  fertile  soil  of  Europe  and  of  the  two  great  rivers 
that  almost  bind  the  Black  Sea  to  the  Atlantic — ^the 
Rhine  and  the  Danube.  All  the  golden  streams  of 
the  world's  commerce  flowed  now  to  one  poHtical 
centre,  bearing  Homeward  with  equal  thoroughness 
all  the  confluents  of  art,  hterature,  and  luxury.  The 
glorious  dreams  of  Alexander  the  Great  were  trans- 
lated into  realities  when  Roman  '^Conquistadori" 
sat  at  Antioch,  Alexandria,  Carthage,  Saragossa, 
Lyons,  and  York.  In  the  eventful  struggle  for  the 
Mediterranean  that  began  with  the  Great  Persian 
War  the  first  epoch  was  fittingly  closed  by  the  de- 
feat of  the  Orient  and  the  creation  of  a  self-conscious 
Occident.  But  scarcely  had  the  City  of  Rome  en- 
slaved the  universal  earth  when  the  chains  of  her  own 
slavery  were  forged  at  her  own  hearth.  The  noise  of 
falling  kingdoms  alternates  with  the  uproar  of  civil 
discord  during  the  century  that  precedes  the  birth  of 
Christ,  and  when  these  ever-memorable  conflicts  are 
over,  the  power  of  Csesar  is  securely  anchored.  All 
the  reins  of  empire  are  in  the  hands  o£  the  young  Oc- 
ta^dus.    For  a  while  Csesar  will  call  himself  only 


14  THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

princeps,  the  foremost  citizen  of  the  city;  for  a  while 
the  Senate  holds  a  formal  but  unsubstantial  equality. 
All  the  great  magistracies  of  the  City  are  centred  now 
in  Csesar  and  his  heirs.  The  scarred  legions  of  a  hun- 
dred battle-fields  are  his;  his  the  richest  provinces, 
uncontrolled  revenues  and  fleets;  his,  too,  the  leg- 
islative power,  since  the  servile  Senate  no  longer 
dares  to  refuse  registration  of  every  desire  or  sug- 
gestion of  Csesar.  Wearied  of  self-government,  with 
every  enemy  prostrate,  at  the  acme  of  her  glory  and 
power,  Rome  abandoned  all  to  the  hands  of  one  man, 
made  perpetual  and  irrevocable  that  dictatorship  to 
wliich  in  the  past  she  had  occasionally,  but  only 
occasionally,  entrusted  her  supreme  interests.  The 
world,  governed  directly  and  immediately  by  Rome, 
reacted  in  turn  upon  the  proud  City,  and  where  once 
a  race  of  sturdy  Italian  freemen  administered  an 
humble  commonwealth  upon  ancestral  soil,  there 
arose  a  new  cosmopolitan  government  in  which  all 
the  passions,  vices,  and  interests  of  the  captive  world 
had  a  growing  share. 

"Graecia  capta  ferum  victorem  coepit." 

Flattery  and  corruption,  ambition  and  hatred  and 
envy,  stood  guard  around  the  imperial  throne.  The 
poHshed  and  conscienceless  Greek,  the  frivolous  and 
boastful   Gaul,   the   debauched   Syrian,    an   almost 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  15 

nameless  body  of  ex-slaves,  were  the  true  rulers  of 
the  world.  The  original  Roman  people  had  in  great 
part  made  way  for  them,  being  cut  off  in  long  foreign 
wars,  greatly  decimated  in  the  civil  struggles  that 
brought  about  the  fall  of  the  Republic,  or  hopelessly 
confounded  with  the  descendants  of  those  captives 
and  foreigners  that  Rome  had  been  absorbing  during 
more  than  a  century  of  universal  conquest. 

But  the  City  in  turn  fascinated  all  who  came  in 
contact  with  her.  She  hfted  men  to  her  own  high 
level.  Those  born  to  hate  her  became  her  humble 
slaves,  ready  to  die  for  one  whom  the  world  now 
called  the  Golden  City,  the  City  Eternal,  the  Royal 
Queen,  to  whose  ''Genius"  all  the  deities  of  all  the 
races  had  done  homage,  and  whose  astoimding  'Tor- 
tune"  dominated  the  imagination  of  all.  Indeed, 
well  might  they  call  her  the  Golden  City,  the  City 
Eternal!  The  stranger  who  entered  her  gates 
walked  entranced  through  long  rows  of  marble  pal- 
aces, the  happy  homes  of  victorious  generals,  pow- 
erful lawyers,  merchant-princes,  when  they  were  not 
hired  out  to  a  mob  of  Oriental  kings  and  potentates. 
Splendid  porticoes,  temples,  and  baths  dotted  the 
City,  and  her  public  squares  or  fora  were  filled  with 
forests  of  statues.  Masterpieces  of  art  and  the  curios 
of  all  past  or  conquered  civilizations  were  to  be  seen 
at  every  turn — the  fruits  of  foreign  skill,  or  rather  of 


16  THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

a  long  robbery  of  the  world,  carried  on  with  iron  per- 
sistency for  centuries.  If  this  Rome  was  the  abode 
of  an  army  of  spies  and  informers,  she  was  also  the 
home  of  literature  and  art  and  general  human  cul- 
ture, such  an  abode  as  no  city  has  ever  been ;  for  the 
relations  of  London  to  England,  or  Paris  to  France, 
express  but  feebly  the  intellectual  supremacy  of  the 
City  in  the  palmy  days  of  her  greatness.  Within  her 
walls  she  sheltered  perhaps  a  milUon  and  a  half  of 
people,  but  her  empire  was  over  two  thousand  miles 
long  and  over  three  thousand  miles  broad,  with  a  cal- 
culated population  of  one  hundred  to  one  hundred 
and  twenty  milhons,  and  a  subdued  and  docile  terri- 
tory in  extent  somewhat  more  than  one-half  that  of 
the  United  States  before  1870. 

One  may  well  wonder  how  this  huge  mass  of  em- 
pire, made  up  so  late,  by  force,  out  of  so  much  wreck- 
age of  nations,  states,  and  races,  could  be  governed 
with  success.  Rome  was  not  a  Adctorious  nation, 
but  a  victorious  city,  and  where  she  could  she  in- 
troduced her  own  municipal  institutions,  admirably 
fitted,  as  a  rule,  to  the  local  circumstances  of  an- 
tique hfe.  Then  she  was  no  doctrinaire,  and  where 
the  native  fierceness  or  raw  simphcity  of  the  van- 
quished forbade  her  usual  policy,  she  governed  them 
in  a  way  suited  to  their  temper  and  her  real  power. 
Her  provinces  were  usually  complexus  of  cities,  each 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  17 

responsible  for  its  own  suhurhium,  and  in  each 
province  the  chief  Roman  magistrate,  whatever  his 
title,  wielded  the  entire  power  of  Rome,  civil  and 
mihtary.  He  governed  immediately  and  directly  in 
the  interests  of  the  City,  which  looked  on  the  whole 
world  as  the  ^^farm  of  the  Roman  people,"  precisely 
as  any  subject  city  of  hers  looked  on  its  suburban  ter- 
ritory. These  interests  demanded  peace  and  pru- 
dent administration  of  the  sources  of  revenue; 
hence  the  increase  of  population  and  of  the  general 
welfare  of  the  great  provinces  in  the  century  or  two 
that  followed  the  birth  of  Christ.  From  the  Golden 
Milestone  in  the  very  heart  of  Rome  there  branched 
out  to  the  ends  of  her  empire  a  huge  network  of  com- 
munication, great  roads  paved  with  basaltic  or  lava 
blocks,  some  remnants  of  which  yet  remain  and  show 
the  deep  ruts  of  the  chariot- wheels  or  the  heavy  trucks 
that  for  centuries  rattled  over  them,  bearing  countless 
thousands  on  purposes  of  state  or  commerce  or  cu- 
riosity, or  transferring  war  material  and  the  rare 
products  of  the  far  Orient.  The  government  post 
and  a  system  of  inns  completed  the  means  of  transit, 
which  was  so  perfect  that  only  in  our  own  day  has  it 
been  surpassed  by  the  discovery  of  the  uses  of  steam. 
All  this,  however,  was  subservient  to  one  paramount 
influence  for  unity — the  Greek  tongue.  While  the 
Roman  kept  the  Latin  for  the  use  of  camp  and  law, 


18  THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

of  administration  and  commerce,  he  adopted  the 
Greek  as  the  vehicle  of  poHte  intercourse.  For  three 
or  four  centuries  it  had  been  the  language  of  authority 
in  the  Orient  and  of  refinement  everywhere.  Even 
the  Jews  had  submitted  to  its  charm,  and  outside  of 
Judaea,  in  Greek  lands  at  least,  preached  the  Law  of 
Moses  in  the  accents  of  Homer. 

The  final  result  of  such  conditions  could  only  be 
the  gradual  extinction  of  all  national  peculiarities — 
the  cliief  object  of  Rome,  or  rather  of  the  Caesars, 
who  aimed  henceforth  at  a  general  world-citizenship, 
an  organization  of  humanity  under  the  benign  direc- 
tion of  that  City  which  the  gods,  or  fate,  or  her  own 
fortune  and  power  had  made  supremely  responsible 
for  the  welfare  of  men.  Velleities  of  national  inde- 
pendence were  crushed  out,  as  at  Jerusalem,  and 
anomalies  of  national  religions,  Hke  the  Druids,  were 
sternly  and  thoroughly  suppressed.  The  worsliip 
of  the  imperial '' Genius"  and  the  general  acceptance 
of  the  Roman  jurisprudence,  with  its  uniform  and 
almost  mathematical  equity,  helped  on  this  process 
of  assimilation.  And  when  we  remember  the  colo- 
nization en  masse  of  abandoned  or  ruined  cities,  the 
generous  extension  of  the  Roman  citizensliip,  the 
cementing  action  of  commerce,  and  the  levelling  in- 
fluence of  the  legions,  we  cease  to  wonder  that  before 
Jesus  Christ  was  born,  pohtically  the  low  places  were 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY.         19 

filled  up,  the  high  mountains  laid  low,  and  the  social 
ground  made  ready  for  a  new  city — the  city  of  Man 
or  the  city  of  God,  that  was  the  problem  of  the  future. 
The  Peloponnesian  War  had  wiped  out  all  difference 
between  Dorian  and  Ionian.  The  campaigns  of 
Alexander  had  opened  the  Orient  to  Greek  culture, 
and  hellenized  the  enormous  basin  of  the  Mediterra- 
nean as  well  as  the  great  pathways  to  the  Orient. 
The  last  act  in  the  preparation  of  that  poHtical  unity 
which  facilitated  the  success  of  the  Gospel  was  the  one 
that  placed  all  earthly  power  in  the  hands  of  Rome. 
It  was  the  end  and  acme  of  state-building  in  antiq- 
uity, and  furnished  the  needed  basis  for  the  subhme 
social  and  religious  revolution  then  at  hand. 

How  slow  and  uncertain  might  have  been  the 
spread  of  the  Christian  rehgion  if  its  apostles  had  been 
obHged  at  every  step  to  deal  with  new  governments, 
new  prejudices,  new  languages!  Hence  the  Christian 
Fathers  saw  in  the  splendid  unity  of  the  empire  some- 
thing providential  and  divine.  The  elder  Pliny 
might  imagine  that  this  unity  was  the  work  of  the 
gods  bestowing  pohte  intercourse  and  civiUzation  on 
all  mankind,  but  Christian  writers  hke  Origen  (contra 
Celsum,  II.  30)  and  Prudentius  (contra  Symmachum, 
II.  609)  saw  in  it  the  removal  of  the  most  difficult 
obstacles  to  the  propagation  of  Christianity,  viz.,  the 
diversity  of  language  and  the  destruction  of  national 


20  THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY, 

barriers.  When  St.  Paul  tells  us  (Rom.  x.  18): 
^'Verily  their  sound  hath  gone  forth  into  all  the  earth, 
and  their  words  unto  the  ends  of  the  whole  world/ ^ 
he  expresses  a  fact  which  the  Christian  society  has 
always  looked  upon  as  an  historical  marvel,  a  prima 
fade  evidence  of  the  innate  truth  and  charm  of  the 
apostolic  preaching.  In  his  apology  against  Celsus 
the  erudite  Origen  appeals  to  the  character  of  the 
apostles  and  to  their  circumstances  as  in  itself  a  strong 
proof  of  the  divine  origin  of  Christianity. 

A  few  poor  fishermen,  rustic  and  unlettered,  go 
forth  at  the  bidding  of  one  of  their  countrymen  to 
conquer  for  him,  not  the  temporal  authority,  but, 
what  is  much  more  difficult,  the  spiritual  mastery  of 
this  great  Roman  world!  They  are  but  a  handful, 
and  Jews  at  that,  whom  the  masters  of  Roman  liter- 
ature delight  in  depicting  as  the  most  contemptible 
in  the  Roman  state.  They  are  of  the  lowest  in  a 
world  where  birth  and  wealth  are  everything,  and  they 
were  born  and  bred  in  a  remote  and  mountainous 
region,  where  those  schemes  of  ambition  that  are 
easily  nourished  in  great  cities  could  scarcely  suggest 
themselves  to  men.  Their  Master  had  died  a  felon's 
death,  and  they  themselves  had  abandoned  Him  in 
the  supreme  hour,  having  hoped  to  the  last  that  He 
would  revive  a  temporal  kingdom  of  Israel. 

Yet  suddenly  they  are  filled  with  a  boundless  en- 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY.         21 

thusiasm.  The  apparitions  of  Jesus  have  trans- 
formed them  from  rude  Galilean  fishermen  into  elo- 
quent apostles  of  a  universal  religion.  The  men  who 
could  not  watch  an  hour  with  their  divine  Master, 
much  less  withstand  the  taunts  of  the  angry  mob, 
are  now  fearless  before  the  supreme  council  of  their 
own  national  priesthood  and  boldly  proclaim  the 
basic  principle  of  the  new  dispensation:  ''It  is  better 
to  obey  God  than  men."  Their  discourse  is  strangely 
effective;  hundreds  and  then  thousands  are  carried 
away  by  it,  and  give  up  all  to  follow  men  whom 
but  a  brief  while  ago  they  passed  without  notice  in 
the  streets  of  Jerusalem.  Severe  persecution  only 
strengthens  them  in  their  convictions,  and  before 
they  are  forced  to  flee  the  city  they  have  converted 
to  the  society  of  Jesus  Christ  no  insignificant  number 
of  the  national  clergy  itself.  Their  speech  and  their 
counsel,  when  obliged  to  face  great  problems  affecting 
immediately  the  future  of  this  society  of  Christ,  are 
stamped  with  a  rare  wisdom.  In  the  days  of  transi- 
tion from  the  old  to  the  new,  while  the  synagogue, 
in  the  words  of  St.  Augustine,  was  breathing  its  last, 
they  behaved  towards  it  with  piety  and  with  that 
rare  precision  of  tact  and  good  sense  that  usually 
mark  men  of  experience  and  judgment.  The  Acts 
tell  us  but  little  of  those  few  years  in  which  the  apos- 
tles were  founding  the  Church  of  Jerusalem,  but  what 


22         THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

they  reveal  shows  us  men  utterly  different  from  the 
timid  and  doubting  disciples  whom  Jesus  led  about 
in  His  hfetime,  and  whose  rusticity  and  worldliness 
shine  out  so  plainly  in  the  gospels.  But  now  they 
are  men  who  have  seen  the  risen  Jesus  in  His  glory, 
conversed  with  Him,  been  filled  with  His  grace,  and 
shared  in  the  effusion  of  His  holy  spirit  on  the  Day 
of  Pentecost. 

The  hour  comes  when  they  must  quit  the  Holy  City 
and  go  out  into  a  world  they  know  not  and  which 
knows  not  them.  Was  it  a  light  or  indifferent  thing 
for  a  Jew  to  abandon  the  Temple,  which  held  all  that 
he  reputed  dear  and  sacred?  The  oracles  of  God  were 
there,  and  the  pledges  of  His  promises.  There,  too, 
were  the  solenm  feasts  of  the  only  true  religion  upon 
earth  ere  the  fulfilment  of  the  prophecies.  Thither 
came  yearly  from  the  ends  of  the  world  a  multitude  of 
Jews,  to  adore  God  after  the  consohng  manner  of  their 
fathers.  Its  white  walls  and  golden  roofs  shone  afar 
from  Moriah  and  gladdened  the  eyes  of  the  weary  pil- 
grim when  they  did  not  shine  before  his  imagina- 
tion. So  deep  were  the  roots  which  this  extraordi- 
nary edifice  had  cast  in  the  hearts  of  the  chosen  people 
that  since  its  destruction,  in  spite  of  their  sad  vicis- 
situdes, they  have  never  ceased  to  weep  bitter  tears 
on  the  Friday  of  every  week  over  the  few  remaining 
stones  of  its  once  proud  walls.    But  these  men  of 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY.         23 

Galilee,  with  never  a  spark  of  Gentile  sympathies  or 
Hellenism  in  their  hearts,  with  no  natural  love  for  the 
cruel  and  oppressive  eagles  of  Rome,  go  out  forever 
from  the  one  corner  of  earth  that  is  dear  to  them,  the 
sepulchres  of  their  fathers,  the  homes  of  their  families, 
the  sites  of  the  Resurrection  and  the  Judgment,  out 
into  endless  conflict  and  incalculable  sufferings,  out 
into  a  world  of  odious  and  repulsive  idolatry.  It 
was  a  sublime  act  of  daring,  and  whoever  reflects  that 
neither  before  nor  since  has  the  hke  been  seen  will  not 
wonder  that  Christians  have  been  prone  from  the  be- 
ginning to  surround  this  step  with  due  veneration. 
Thereby  the  rehgion  of  Christ  was  carried  beyond  the 
boundaries  of  the  Jewish  state,  and  preached  through- 
out the  vast  empire  of  Rome  as  the  complement  and 
perfection  of  Judaism,  the  alone-saving  truth,  the  di- 
vine balm  of  doubt  and  spiritual  unrest,  and  the  sav- 
ing ointment  for  a  corrupting  society.  Soon  won- 
derful missionaries  are  joined  to  the  apostles — Bar- 
nabas and  John,  Marcus  the  Evangelist  and  Philip; 
married  couples,  too,  like  Andronicus  and  Junias, 
Aquila  and  Prisca;  and  in  an  incredibly  brief  time 
the  crucified  and  risen  Jesus  has  been  preached  on  the 
fertile  plains  between  the  Euphrates  and  the  Tigris, 
throughout  the  valleys  and  the  tablelands  of  Syria 
and  Asia  Minor.  His  doctrine  is  known  in  the  Delta 
of  the  Nile  and  up  the  great  river  in  Ethiopia,  in  the 


24  THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY, 

African  oasis  of  Cyrene  and  in  the  island  of  Cyprus,  in 
Spain  and  Gaul,  and  finally  at  Rome,  where  it  was 
probably  carried  quicker  than  to  any  other  site  on 
earth.  The  bitterest  enemy  of  the  Christians,  Saul, 
is  converted  by  Jesus  Himself,  and  made  a  vessel  of 
election,  thereby  furnishing  in  one  famous  and  supe- 
rior person  to  the  first  feeble  commimities  an  irresisti- 
ble evidence  of  the  truth  and  the  power  of  their  faith. 
If  not  many  great  and  noble  according  to  the  world 
belong  to  this  doctrine  that  is  gainsaid  everywhere, 
still  men  and  women  from  every  class  of  society  are 
represented — ^those  of  Csesar^s  household;  the  pro- 
consul of  Cyprus,  Sergius  Paulus;  the  noble  women 
of  Beroea;  the  principal  women  of  Thessalonica ; 
Lydia,  the  seller  of  purple  in  Thyatira ;  the  physician 
Luke;  the  scholar  Apollo;  Dionysius,  a  judge  of  the 
Athenian  Areopagus,  as  well  as  the  nameless  multi- 
tude who  joined  it  in  all  the  Jewries  that  stretched 
from  the  Tigris  to  the  Tagus. 

It  is  in  vain  that  misguided  men  question  the  au- 
thority of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  whence  we  learn 
the  first  conquests  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ. 
From  one  extravagant  opinion  to  another  they  have 
been  obliged  to  recede,  until  to-day  what  passes  for 
enlightened  criticism  recognizes  the  general  trust- 
worthiness of  this  fascinating  narrative.  Its  abso- 
lute rehability  has  never  been  doubted  by  a  much 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY.         25 

greater  authority,  the  Catholic  Church,  to  which  we 
owe  the  tradition  of  the  text,  and  which  is  herself 
contemporaneous  with  the  work.  Even  Renan,  so 
ready  to  diminish  or  offset  the  analogies  and  the 
germs  of  the  Church's  constitution,  cannot  deny 
that  the  hand  of  St.  Luke  is  visible  in  the  book,  that 
''its  view  of  the  yet  brief  history  of  the  Christian 
society  is  that  of  the  official  historians  of  the  Court  of 
Rome."  It  was  read  in  the  infant  churches,  which 
were  not  made  up  of  inexperienced  men  of  one  race 
fixed  to  the  soil,  but  were  rather  formed  from  a  hun- 
dred nationahties,  with  a  large  proportion  of  Hellen- 
istic Jews.  These  men  were  capable,  by  their  tongue, 
their  origin,  and  their  personal  experience,  of  detect- 
ing any  imposture  foisted  upon  them,  if  only  by  com- 
parison with  the  numerous  texts  of  this  work  circu- 
lated in  the  East  and  the  West  long  before  the  end 
of  the  first  century.  St.  John  the  Apostle  was  still 
alive,  and  to  be  consulted  in  Ephesus,  or  in  any  of 
the  original  sees  of  Asia  Minor  which  he  founded  and 
nourished  with  special  love. 

It  will  not  do  to  sneer  at  the  Grecized  Jews,  at  their 
archaic  Macedonian  dialect,  or  their  uncouth  pro- 
nunciation. Some  remnants  of  inscriptions  do  not 
betray  the  culture  of  a  numerous  class,  and  long 
before  the  time  of  Christ  there  were  Jews  like  the  one 
whom  Aristotle  knew,   Hellenes  in  all  but  blood. 


26  THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

The  Asmonsean  and  Herodian  families  were  often 
Greek  at  heart,  and  hundreds  of  such  men  were 
among  the  first  disciples  of  the  apostles.  Could  not 
the  churches  that  produced  St.  Clement  and  the  Are- 
opagite,  St.  Ignatius  of  Antioch  and  St.  Justin,  rec- 
ognize a  literary  fraud  that  must  have  been  attempted 
on  an  enormous  scale?  Or  was  that  age  so  devoid  of 
criticism  to  which  we  owe  those  perfect  editions  of 
the  texts  of  Homer  and  Vergil,  and  so  many  other 
Greek  and  Latin  classics,  which  modern  scholarship 
aims  at  reproducing?  Or  were  there  wanting  ripe 
scholars  in  the  earliest  Christian  communities,  men 
of  standing  and  influence  not  unhke  the  Jew  Philo, 
and  that  other  Jew  Josephus?  Were  not  Apollo  and 
Mark  men  of  the  rarest  eloquence,  the  true  propa- 
gandists, according  to  Renan?  Could  a  confused  and 
misleading  story  of  the  origin  of  the  Church  and  their 
own  share  in  it  have  easily  obtained  absolute  cur- 
rency during  their  lifetime  and  in  their  own  commu- 
nities, and  leave  behind  no  trace  of  the  disturbances 
it  necessarily  created?  Truly,  the  contradictions  that 
follow  the  denial  of  the  credibility  of  the  Acts  are  so 
much  greater  than  those  supposed  to  arise  from  the 
ancient  and  universal  belief,  that  we  may  safely  wait 
until  we  are  dispossessed  by  some  arguments  known 
to  the  law  or  the  equity  of  imbiassed  literary  criticism. 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY  27 

II. 

What  could  it  be  that  so  charged  the  hearts  of  the 
apostles  with  unheard-of  vigor  and  energy?  What 
was  the  source  of  that  calm,  unchanging  joy  wliich 
shines  from  the  pages  of  the  genuine  history  and  cor- 
respondence of  the  infant  society?  It  was  a  colossal 
faith  in  the  person  of  Jesus  Christ  and  His  works,  His 
life,  His  doctrine,  and  His  promises — no  mere  admira- 
tion of  His  conduct,  no  vague,  undefined  velleity  of  a 
remote  imitation,  no  simple  confidence  in  His  power, 
sanctity,  and  future  coming.  It  was  a  faith  with  an 
objective  content,  whose  main  elements  and  outlines 
are  clearly  set  forth  in  the  genuine  writings  of  the 
apostles,  faith  in  their  mission  by  Him  whom  they 
never  tired  of  preacliing,  faith  in  the  fidelity  of  His 
support  and  His  ultimate  victory,  faith  in  the  specific 
purpose  of  a  society  they  were  sent  to  "  found  and  to 
estabhsh  "  in  the  words  of  the  most  ancient  Christian 
writers,  i.e.,  to  organize  as  a  self-propagating  and 
self-preserving  entity,  in  order  to  hand  down  to  re- 
motest times  the  history,  doctrine,  and  authority  of 
Jesus  Christ.  The  apostles  were  no  vapid  dreamers, 
but  men  of  action — elevated  and  transfigured,  in- 
deed, but  with  clear  and  fixed  purposes  that  culmi- 
nated in  the  estabhshment  of  a  universal  religious 
association.     Hence  in  the  New  Testament  one  sees 


28  THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

them  everywhere;  traveiling,  preaching^  organizing 
little  knots  and  bands  of  believers — an  activity  so 
marked  that  their  immediate  disciple,  Clement  of 
Rome,  recalls  it  as  their  chief  occupation.  This  stu- 
pendous faith  found  expression  in  a  personal  devotion 
to  Jesus  Christ  that  ravished  all  souls  and  filled  heart- 
weary  multitudes  with  a  presentiment  of  spiritual 
peace  and  refreshment  to  be  had  at  the  same  source. 
The  Temple  of  Janus  was  shut,  it  is  true,  but  the  ex- 
ternal peace  of  Rome  covered  much  mental  commo- 
tion. ''  0  Csesar,  in  thy  peace  what  things  I  suffer! " 
cries  Epictetus.  The  minor  political  arenas  of  the 
world  were  closed,  that  mankind  might  for  once 
watch  the  splendid  game  of  world-government  as  con- 
ducted on  a  suitable  scale  upon  the  few  acres  of  marly 
soil  that  spread  on  either  side  of  the  Tiber.  The  gods 
of  the  nations  were  without  prestige,  for  they  had  not 
been  able  to  hold  their  own  against  the  fortune  of 
Rome.  The  great  philosophies  offered  consola- 
tion, as  philosophy  always  does,  but  to  a  chosen  few 
only,  and  in  an  insufficient  way.  The  superb  art  of 
Greece  had  taken  the  road  of  exile.  Henceforth  it 
can  only  imitate — it  will  create  no  more.  The 
sources  of  its  inspiration  are  dried  up;  there  is  no 
longer  in  it  any  power  of  consecration.  It  is  no 
longer  a  spiritual  strength  or  a  rehgious  consolation, 
for  the  popular  faith  on  which  it  stood  has  universally 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY,         29 

collapsed.  The  feeling  of  the  powerful  and  opulent 
can  be  guessed  from  the  bitter  words  of  their  chief 
writer,  Tacitus,  that  man  is  the  wretched  toy  of  an 
insolent  fate.  The  outlook  of  the  statesman  was  so 
disheartening  that  Tiberius  congratulated  the  Senate 
on  the  disruption  of  the  Germanic  Confederation  of 
Maroboduus  as  an  event  of  greater  import  than  the 
Athenian  defeat  of  Phihp,  or  the  Roman  victories 
over  Pyrrhus  or  Antiochus.  On  this  sated  and 
wearied  world  the  preaching  of  the  apostles  and  their 
disciples  made  a  vivid  impression,  with  its  assertion 
of  a  new  kingdom  and  a  new  ruler  in  the  yet  uncon- 
quered  province  of  the  human  heart.  The  eloquent 
universal  praise  and  the  steadfast  adoration  of  this 
new  personality,  the  great  deeds  done  in  His  name, 
the  assertion  of  His  eternal  kingship,  the  adhesion  in 
every  city  of  miscellaneous  multitudes,  convinced  new 
multitudes  that  the  person  of  Jesus  was  divine  and 
worthy  of  all  the  devotion  bestowed  upon  it.  It  was 
the  intensity  and  eloquence  of  this  devotion  in  St. 
Paul  that  nearly  persuaded  King  Agrippa  to  become 
a  Christian.  In  many  a  later  persecution  it  was  the 
personal  devotion  of  the  martyrs  to  Jesus  Christ  that 
moved  the  onlooking  pagans  to  consider  what  man- 
ner of  person  He  might  be  for  whom  men  so  joyfully 
laid  down  their  lives.  Who  can  read  the  letters  of 
St.  Ignatius  of  Antioch,  especially  that  to  the  Romans, 


30  THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

without  being  moved  by  the  fine  exalted  mysticism 
of  his  speech,  without  feehng  that  a  new  and  irresist- 
ible passion,  the  personal  love  of  God  for  man  and  man 
for  God,  has  been  introduced  among  men,  and  that, 
like  an  atmosphere  or  a  perfume,  it  must  soon  trans- 
form the  hearts  of  all  who  admit  it,  and  eventually 
renew  from  within  every  society  in  which  its  believers 
multiply? 

The  personal  memories  of  Jesus  worked  marvels  in 
the  hearts  of  the  apostles.  To  beheve  this  we  do  not 
need  to  recall  the  old  tradition  that  the  cheeks  of 
Peter  were  furrowed  by  the  tears  that  he  shed  when 
he  recalled  that  divinely  sad  glance  of  Jesus.  We  do 
not  need  to  recollect  that  Christ  vouchsafed  a  per- 
sonal apparition  to  St.  Paul,  as  though  this  grace  were 
needed  to  make  him  an  equal  apostle  with  the  others. 
How  could  they  ever  forget  the  incomparable  Master 
and  Teacher  with  whom  they  had  so  long  dwelt  in 
sweet  intimacy?  They  knew  now  that  it  was  God 
Himself  with  whom  they  had  crossed  the  hills  of  Gal- 
ilee, who  had  walked  with  them  through  its  valleys 
and  its  villages,  who  had  sailed  with  poor  fishing  folk 
in  their  humble  boats  on  Genesareth.  With  the  com- 
pelling magic  of  affection  they  recalled  surely  His 
mien.  His  gestures.  His  gait,  His  sweet  gravity,  the 
liquid  eyes,  twin  homes  of  love  and  sorrow,  and  that 
familiar  speech  that  was  wont  to  fight  in  the  heart  of 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY,  31 

every  listener  a  flame  of  faith  and  love.  He  went 
about  doing  good,  He  spoke  as  one  having  power, 
grace  was  about  Him  as  an  atmosphere — how  could 
the  apostles  fail  to  renew  in  those  divinely  efficient 
memories  their  hearts  sore-tried  in  the  multitudinous 
conflict  that  they  were  directing?  What  is  hke  unto 
memory?  It  is  Hke  the  sword  that  reaches  the  inner- 
most divisions  of  the  soul,  and  pierces  us  in  the  re- 
motest of  our  spiritual  fortresses.  Or  again  it  is  hke 
the  wings  of  the  morning  on  which  we  may  fly  from 
all  that  is  Httle  and  vile  and  hemming,  and  rest  in  the 
bosom  of  God  Himself.  The  true  sphere  of  man  is 
himself,  not  the  world  about  him,  and  his  true  wealth 
or  poverty  is  the  memories  of  the  past,  with  their 
sweetness  or  their  horror.  Jesus  knew  that  the  mem- 
ory of  Himself  would  be  for  all  time  the  most  potent 
confirmation  of  faith.  So  He  established  on  the  last 
night  of  His  earthly  fife  a  simple  rite,  a  frugal  meal  or 
banquet,  fixing  Himself  its  essentials.  This  He  left 
not  only  to  His  apostles,  but  especially  to  all  those 
who  in  future  ages  would  heed  their  call  and  join 
themselves  to  His  kingdom.  Thus  He  f ocussed  upon 
His  person  forever  the  attention  of  all  mankind  in 
that  mystic  moment  when  divine  love  emptied  it- 
self for  love  of  man,  and  human  hate  outdid  itself  in 
the  death  of  the  God-Man.  We  can  see  from  the 
earliest  documents  of  Christianity  that  this  mystic 


32  THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

banquet  was  the  great  driving  heart  of  the  society,  its 
vivifying  sun,  the  secret  of  its  inexhaustible  strength. 
The  Httle  house-churches  of  Jerusalem,  the  upper 
chambers  where  the  brethren  met  to  break  bread,  the 
descriptions  of  such  banquets  in  St.  Paul,  the  con- 
fession of  the  Christian  deaconesses  to  the  Younger 
Phny,  the  pages  of  the  earhest  Christian  writers,  the 
numerous  old  frescoes  of  the  Christian  catacombs  at 
Rome,  and  a  long  series  of  other  indications,  show 
that  here  was  the  chief  source  of  the  apostoHc  en- 
ergy, here  Jesus  dwelt  forever  among  them.  The 
momentary  transfiguration  on  Thabor,  seen  by  a 
few  only,  was  now  the  daily  joy  of  all,  replete  with 
infinite  personal  revelations,  illuminations,  and 
suggestions,  to  them  who  had  known  Him  in  the 
flesh. 

While  the  effusion  of  the  Holy  Spirit  on  Pentecost 
confirmed  in  an  extraordinary  degree  the  faith  of  the 
infant  Church,  it  brought  to  the  apostles  and  disci- 
ples a  number  of  charismatic  gifts,  special  graces  given 
to  them  as  public  teachers,  for  the  more  rapid  attain- 
ment of  a  certain  external  growth,  efficiency,  and  or- 
ganic consistency  in  the  new  religion.  God  with- 
drew before  their  discourse  the  barrier  of  differing 
tongues  and  idioms.  They  enjoy  the  gifts  of  proph- 
ecy and  miracles,  especially  of  healing  and  of  exor- 
cism of  evil  spirits,  and  in  their  exercise  of  these  high 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  33 

gifts  we  see  a  prudence  and  a  practical  beneficence 
which  resembles  the  conduct  of  Jesus. 

Another  element  of  the  apostolic  success  is  their  in- 
comparable enthusiasm.  There  is  a  natural  contagion 
in  the  mere  expression  of  overpowering  conviction, 
and  the  annals  of  eloquence  teem  with  examples  of 
multitudes,  even  nations,  yielding  obedience  to  the 
flaming  words  of  some  Demosthenes  or  Hortensius, 
some  St.  Bernard  or  Peter  the  Hermit.  But  the 
apostolic  enthusiasm  was  no  mere  trick  of  human  elo- 
quence, for  they  tell  us  themselves  that  they  spoke 
not  in  the  persuasive  words  of  human  speech.  In 
an  age  of  finical  perfection  of  language  their  discourse 
was  doubtless  rude  and  unadorned.  Their  tongues 
betrayed  their  origin  as  Peter's  did  his,  and  their 
Jewish  profiles  would  not  tempt  many  to  expect  from 
them  a  philosophy  of  salvation.  The  enthusiasm  of 
the  apostles  was  something  different;  it  was  the 
steady  flame  of  pure  faith  and  love  running  out  in 
absolute,  uncalculating  devotion.  We  all  know  the 
mental  habit  of  men  who  have  devoted  themselves 
to  one  purpose  and  who  pursue  it  without  ceasing  or 
wavering.  They  may  walk  in  the  shadow  forever, 
but  an  interior  fight  illumines  their  souls  and  trans- 
figures and  sanctifies  the  object  of  their  endeavors, 
be  it  some  mystery  of  philosophy,  or  art,  or  human 
science,  some  wrong  to  avenge,  some  justice  to  be 


34  THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

obtained.  Leonardo  da  Vinci  walking  the  streets  of 
Milan  for  his  head  of  Christ,  Bernard  PaUssy  casting 
to  the  flames  the  furniture  of  his  poor  workshop  as  a 
last  holocaust  to  his  fleeting  dream  of  beauty,  Colum- 
bus following  his  glorious  ideal  from  one  rebuff  to  an- 
other, are  familiar  examples  of  this  highest  and  most 
efficient  state  of  the  heart,  in  which  it  overleaps  the 
poor  barriers  of  space  and  time,  lays  hold  by  antici- 
pation of  the  cherished  object,  Hves  with  it  and  for 
it,  and  compels  the  astonished  body,  like  a  sturdy 
slave,  to  outdo  itself  in  endurance  and  sacrifice.  Such 
was  the  mental  temper  of  the  apostles,  only  im- 
measurably higher  in  degree,  as  much  as  divine  faith 
surpasses  human  confidence.  They  knew  whom  they 
were  serving,  and  through  what  an  unspeakable 
tragedy  they  were  missionaries  on  the  great  highways 
of  the  East  and  the  West.  They  walked  forever  in 
the  shadow  of  Calvary,  and  their  ears  were  forever 
haunted  by  the  parting  accents  of  their  Master:  "  Go- 
ing therefore,  teach  all  nations.'^ 

Henceforth  no  scorn  shall  chill  their  resolution,  no 
apathy  or  dulness  dim  their  courage.  The  world 
lay  before  them,  its  first  great  spiritual  conquerors, 
sunk  in  the  shadows  of  idolatry,  with  only  here  and 
there  a  point  of  light,  the  little  Jewries  scattered  over 
the  Roman  Empire  and  beyond,  and  those  few  chosen 
Gentile  souls  who  were  true  to  the  law  of  nature  and 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY.         35 

the  impulses  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Before  their  genera- 
tion was  over,  this  world  had  recognized  the  king- 
ship of  Jesus  Christ,  and  a  peaceful  revolution  had 
been  accomphshed,  the  immensity  of  whose  import 
no  one  could  yet  fathom,  but  which  rightly  forms  the 
division-hne  between  the  Old  World  and  the  New, 
between  an  imperfect  and  stumbhng  humanity  in 
which  the  animal  element  was  supreme  and  a  hu- 
manity awakened,  self-conscious,  transmuted,  in 
which  the  spirit  was  henceforth  dominant,  and  which 
had  henceforth  its  universal  ideal,  reahzed,  hving, 
eternal,  tangible,  attainable,  enjoyable,  in  the  person 
of  its  Mediator  and  its  Saviour,  Jesus  Christ. 

Indeed,  the  world  was  ready  for  their  message  of 
salvation.  It  was  no  savage  or  semi-cultured  epoch 
into  which  Christianity  was  born,  but  one  of  elegant 
civihzation,  perfect  in  all  the  appointments  of  speech, 
literature,  art,  communication  and  administration. 
It  was  an  enhghtened  age,  and  the  most  progressive 
materially  that  has  preceded  our  own.  It  was  curi- 
ous, critical,  sceptical,  with  a  view  over  the  world  of 
man  and  nature  such  as  had  not  yet  been  reached. 
And  having  touched  the  summit  of  external  power, 
this  age  began  to  turn  inward  upon  itself,  and  to  ask 
itself  the  meaning  of  hfe  and  death,  of  man  and 
things,  of  the  real  uses  of  victory  and  defeat,  of  truth 
and  goodness  and  beauty.    The  writers  of  the  time 


36  THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

show  that  many  looked  to  the  Orient  and  especially  to 
Judsea  for  a  Saviour,  so  powerful  had  been  the  Old 
Testament  propaganda  in  the  basin  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean. The  Sibyls,  those  strange  intermediaries 
between  Jew  and  Gentile,  sang  of  an  approaching 
age  of  gold,  of  an  immortal  reign  of  justice,  of  a  Vir- 
gin and  a  celestial  Child  who  were  to  be  the  authors  of 
all  future  happiness.  The  popular  pliilosophy.  Sto- 
icism, was  of  Oriental  origin  and  borrowed  much  of 
its  practical  value  from  Semitic  etliics.  The  eyes  of 
the  world  were  fixed  on  Judsea,  if  only  because  its 
mountains  were  the  last  refuge  of  ancient  national 
Hberty,  and  men  were  selUng  dearly  on  those  sacred 
hills  the  great  jewel  of  personal  and  religious  free- 
dom. The  theology  and  the  etliics  of  Israel  were 
making  proselytes  among  heart-weary  men  and 
women  in  every  city  and  in  every  class  of  society. 
A  general  spirit  of  unrest  pervaded  mankind,  the  re- 
sult of  excessive  public  materialism  unbalanced  by 
any  extra-mundane  tendencies,  and  of  a  shattered 
faith  in  national  and  municipal  gods.  An  undefined 
but  aching  sense  of  sin,  a  wild  inarticulate  cry  for 
personal  redemption,  the  individual  need  of  expia- 
tion and  internal  purification,  were  borne  in  on  every 
breath  from  the  Orient.  There  is  a  deep  significance 
in  the  old  legend  that  at  the  hour  of  Christ's  agony 
certain  mariners  on  the  Mediterranean  heard,  borne 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY,         37 

on  the  blast,  the  cry:  ''Great  Pan  is  dead.''  The 
ancient  travesties  of  rehgion  typified  by  the  Greek 
nature-god  called  Pan  had,  indeed,  finished  their 
long  career  of  failure  and  despair,  and  we  may  well 
repeat  the  fine  fines  of  the  modern  poet : 

"  Earth  outgrows  the  mystic  fancies 
Sung  beside  her  in  her  youth, 
And  those  debonair  romances 
Sound  but  dull  beside  the  truth. 
Phoebus'  chariot-course  is  run;; 
Look  up,  poets,  to  the  sun: 
Pan,  Pan  is  dead. 

"Christ  hath  sent  us  down  the  angels, 
And  the  whole  earth  and  the  skies 
Are  illumed  by  altar-candles 
Lit  for  blessed  mysteries; 
And  a  priest's  hand  through  creation 
Waveth  calm  and  consecration'; 
And  Pan  is  dead." 

But  if  the  victory  of  the  apostles  was  rapid,  it  was 
not  therefore  entirely  natural.  It  was  far  from  being 
an  easy  evolution  of  a  cosmopofitan  tendency.  The 
final  establishment  of  the  Christian  society  met  with 
superhimian  obstacles,  so  great  and  varied  that  they 
more  than  offset  the  circumstances  that  favored  it. 
The  Christian  Church  has  always  taught  that  her 
original  victories  constituted  a  moral  miracle  suffi- 
cient to  compel  the  attention  of  every  seeker  after 
truth,  and  to  force  them  to  look  into  her  claims. 


38  THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

III. 

Within  a  hundred  years  after  the  death  of  Christ 
His  religion  might  rightly  be  called  a  universal  one. 
It  had  spread  widely  toward  the  Orient,  crossed  the 
Jordan,  was  flourishing  in  the  great  commercial  cities 
of  Syria  and  out  on  the  great  Syrian  steppe.    It 
had  penetrated  into  Persia  and  away  beyond,  into 
remotest  India.     Trustworthy  evidence  shows  that 
there  were  few  Jewish  communities  into  wliich  the 
name  and  history  of  Christ  had  not  gone,  and  the 
Jews  since  the  last  captivity  were  settled  throughout 
the  entire  Orient.     It  was  strong  enough  in  Alex- 
andria to  draw  the  attention  of  the  Emperor  Hadrian 
on  his  visit  to  that  city,  in  the  early  part  of  the  sec- 
ond century,  and  it  was  quickly  carried  over  the  en- 
tire Delta  and  along  the  great  river,  not  only  among 
the  Grseco-Romans,  but  also  among  the  Old-Coptic 
villagers  who  intermingled  with  their  masters.     From 
golden   Antioch   it    radiated    throughout    northern 
Syria,    followed   all   the   roads   of   commerce   that 
branched  from  there  to  the  Caspian,  up  into  the 
mountainous    tablelands    of    Armenia,    across    the 
mighty  snow^-crowned  ridges  of  the  Taurus  into  Cap- 
padocia,  Galatia,  Bithynia,  and  along  the  northern 
and  southern  coasts  of  Asia  Minor.     Peter  and  Paul, 
Barnabas  and  Mark,  Timothy  and  John,  had  gone 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY.         39 

over  all  these  great  highways  and  sowed  the  good 
seed  in  their  day.  Every  Christian  community  sent 
out  in  turn  its  swarms  of  nameless  missionaries,  who 
penetrated  the  remotest  valleys  and  cHmbed  into  the 
most  inaccessible  regions. 

Throughout  the  first  and  second  centuries  of 
Christianity  there  is  observable  a  universal  propa- 
ganda that  transports  Christian  men  and  women  in 
all  directions  and  makes  use  of  the  political  unity  to 
organize  and  secure  the  unity  of  faith.  Who  can  read 
unmoved  the  letters  of  St.  Ignatius  of  Antioch  to 
the  Christian  communities  of  Asia  Minor  and  Rome? 
What  a  picture  they  show  of  widespread  Christianity, 
with  identical  government  and  faith!  And  the  pages 
of  the  Church  historian  Eusebius  show  us  the  same 
conditions  throughout  all  Asia  Minor  in  the  follow- 
ing century,  i.e.,  before  the  year  200  a.d.:  bishops 
preaching,  travelhng,  holding  synods,  discussing 
with  pagans,  Jews,  and  heretics.  Within  the  last 
decade  we  have  found  the  curious  tombstone  of  one 
of  these  old  missionary  bishops,  Abercius  of  Hierop- 
olis,  a  city  of  Phrygia.  Its  inscription,  prepared  by 
himself,  shows  a  man  who  had  travelled  the  world 
from  the  Tiber  to  the  Tigris  in  the  interests  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  who  rejoiced  that  he  had  found  among 
all  these  brethren  no  other  faith  than  that  of  St.  Paul. 
This  army  of  missionaries  was  yet  needed,  and  we 


40  THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

know  that  they  possessed  for  long  decades  no  small 
share  of  the  charismatic  gifts  of  the  apostolic  period. 
In  the  West  the  churches  of  southern  Italy  re- 
ceived the  faith  of  Christ  at  a  very  early  date,  being 
really  a  portion  of  the  Greek  world  by  language,  in- 
stitutions, and  traditions.  Its  progress  was  slower 
in  northern  Italy,  but  within  the  apostohc  times  it 
had  surely  made  some  headway  in  Gaul,  or  what  is 
known  as  southern  France,  in  Spain,  and  the  islands 
of  the  Mediterranean.  Long  before  the  end  of  the 
second  century  it  was  firmly  established  in  northern 
Africa,  and  by  the  year  200  a.d.  there  was  scarcely 
a  prominent  city  in  the  Mediterranean  world  that 
did  not  have  its  Christian  bishop  with  a  clergy  and  a 
flourishing  community.  This  was  done  without  any 
human  aid,  in  spite  of  every  human  hindrance,  by 
the  purely  peaceful  means  of  preaching  and  example. 
They  had  few  writers  and  they  depended  little  on  the 
written  page.  One  of  the  greatest  of  the  first  Chris- 
tian missionaries,  St.  Irenseus  of  Lyons,  tells  us  that 
the  barbarian  Kelts  and  Britons  had  the  law  of  Jesus 
written  on  their  hearts  without  paper  or  ink.  They 
had  the  Christian  Scriptures,  no  doubt,  and  venerated 
them,  but  they  knew  that  the  true  guarantor  of  faith 
was  the  apostolic  office  and  succession,  that  there 
alone  could  be  found  the  criterion  that  enables  men 
easily  to  distinguish  among  the  claims  of  a  hundred 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  41 

sects  the  original  doctrine  of  Jesus.  For  that  rea- 
son they  kept  with  care  the  list  of  the  apostolic 
churches,  and  consulted  them  in  cases  of  need  or 
doubt,  and  especially  the  Church  of  Rome,  whose 
episcopal  succession  is  the  oldest  and  surest  that  we 
have,  and  was  made  out  \vith  great  care,  before  SS. 
Peter  and  Paul  were  a  hundred  years  dead,  by  St. 
Irenseus  of  Lyons  and  by  Hegesippus,  a  Palestinian 
traveller.  In  other  words,  the  first  Hst  of  the  bishops 
of  Rome  was  not  made  out  by  Roman  Christians, 
who  knew  it  too  well,  but  by  a  Greek  Asiatic  and  a 
Jew,  who  felt  its  need  as  the  sure  and  sufficient  pledge 
of  the  maintenance  of  the  Catholic  doctrine. 

If  the  Christian  missionaries  could  move  easily  from 
one  place  to  another,  and  could  find  men  and  women 
speaking  a  common  tongue — the  Greek, — they  had 
not  therefore  converted  them.  In  the  great  cities, 
as  in  the  rural  districts,  among  the  most  refined  popu- 
lations as  well  as  among  the  semi-barbarians  of  the 
empire,  they  found  two  great  sources  of  almost  in- 
superable obstacles — the  social  order  and  the  religious 
condition.  These  obstacles  they  overcame  before  their 
death,  and  it  is  this  victory  which  Christians  call  a 
moral  miracle  of  the  highest  order.  The  conduct  of 
the  greatest  intellectual  adversaries  of  Christianity 
is  in  itself  an  indirect  proof  that  its  first  propagation 
throughout  the  world  was,  morally  speaking,  an  event 


42  THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

that  transcended  all  human  experience  and  analogy. 
These  exacting  critics  leave  nothing  undone  to  trans- 
form the  great  victory  of  Jesus  Christ  over  the 
Gr2eco-Roman  world  into  the  stages  of  a  natural  and 
easy  evolution  in  which  every  circumstance  favors 
the  Christian  cause  and  operates  equally  to  the  detri- 
ment of  the  pagan  rehgion  and  society. 

Foremost  among  them  is  Edward  Gibbon,  the 
mirror  of  the  philosophic  irreligion  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  an  arrogant  and  splenetic  man  who  spurned 
the  saving  gift  of  faith,  and  consumed  talent  of  the 
very  highest  order  in  the  service  of  a  shallow  scepti- 
cism. For  him  Christianity  is  a  phenomenon  to  be 
explained  by  a  brief  catalogue  of  natural  situations 
and  contemporary  advantages.  He  ignores  habit- 
ually or  minimizes  the  true  issue.  With  a  constant 
uncharity  he  attributes  or  suggests  motives  that  really 
exist  only  in  his  own  imagination  or  heart.  He  Hfts 
by  the  potent  magic  of  words  the  secondary  to  the 
plane  of  the  principal,  and  gives  to  the  transitory  or 
local  or  accidental  in  Christianity  the  supreme  re- 
sponsible role  of  a  principal  or  an  efficient  cause.  He 
emphasizes  with  the  delicate  patient  care  of  a  minia- 
turist every  detail  favorable  to  his  own  contentions, 
and  cloaks  in  rhetorical  silence  whatever  would  reduce 
their  value.  By  this  long  unbroken  process  of  cari- 
cature he  has  given  to  the  world  an  account  of  the 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY,  43 

first  Christian  ages  that  is  a  compound  of  rhetorical 

mimmism,  exaggeration,  and  distortion.     In  it  every 

paragraph  is  charged  with  infinite  injustice.     These 

Hterary  wrongs  are  often,  of  course,  very  delicate  and 

elusive.     The  whole  picture  of  primitive  Christianity 

as  drawn  by  Gibbon  is  about  as  like  the  original  facts 

as  the  misshapen  Cahban  was  like  the  fairy  nymph 

Ariel.    There  is  in  this  extraordinary  man  something 

of  Milton^s  graceful  and  humane  BeHal: 

"  He  seemed 
For  dignity  composed  and  high  exploit'; 
But  all  was  false  and  hollow ;  though  his  tongue 
Dropped  manna  and  could  make  the  worse  appear 
The  better  reason." 

He  is  the  most  expert  special  pleader  known  at  the 
bar  of  liistory,  owing  to  his  enormous  reading  and 
maliciously  retentive  memory,  his  fine  rare  skill  in 
summarizing,  his  unequalled  architectonic  talent  in 
disposing  his  materials,  and  the  supreme  gift  of  a 
rhetoric  at  once  solemnly  and  finically  gorgeous.  He 
climbs  the  cathedra  of  history  and  thunders  therefrom 
like  an  Egyptian  priest  reciting  the  good  and  evil 
deeds  of  some  dead  Pharaoh.  He  is  a  compound  of 
Rhadamanthus  and  Momus,  foremost  master  of  that 
dread  art  of  satire  which  is  often  only  the  expression 
of  pride  and  hate,  rather  than  of  justice  or  equity. 
He  "  sapp'd  a  solemn  creed  with  solemn  sneer  "  at  an 
unfortunate  psychological  moment  wiien  it  lay  hum- 


44  THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

bled  in  the  dust  by  an  astounding  series  of  causes. 
But  he  is  frequently  inexact  and  careless  in  state- 
ments, as  every  new  edition  of  his  work  shows.  He 
is  incurably  afflicted  with  a  cheap  and  fflppant  ra- 
tionahsm  that  runs  always,  animal-Hke,  terre-a-terre, 
and  can  see  notliing  noble,  divine,  providential  in  the 
world's  history.  He  has  outUved  Voltaire  because 
he  was  graver  and  deeper  than  that  protagonist;  but 
he  belongs  to  the  same  school  that  stubbornly  weaves 
the  web  of  facts  on  a  fixed  pattern  and  takes  the  har- 
mony and  brilliancy  of  its  own  coloring  for  the  real 
face  of  history.  Gibbon  may  well  assign  as  causes 
of  the  rapid  spread  of  Christianity  the  zeal  of  the  early 
Christians,  their  belief  in  a  future  hfe  of  rewards  and 
punishments,  the  power  they  claimed  of  working 
miracles,  their  pure  and  austere  morality,  their  unity 
and  discipline.  But  he  leaves  out  the  very  soul  of 
the  Christian  rehgion,  the  love  of  Jesus  Christ  crucified, 
which  was  in  every  martyr's  heart  and  mouth,  and 
who  so  often  appeared  to  them  in  their  noisome  pris- 
ons in  ravisliing  visions  like  that  of  St.  Perpetua.  He 
has  studied  in  vain  the  documents  and  monuments 
of  those  days  who  does  not  see  that  it  was  by  the  di- 
vine alchemy  of  love  that  Jesus  transmuted  the  stony 
pagan  heart  into  the  living  breathing  Christian  heart, 
and  stamped  it  forever  with  His  name,  and  sent  it 
forth  among  mankind,  the  seat  and  source  of  infinite 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY.         45 

divine  ardors  and  fancies— a  weak  and  fleshly  vessel, 
indeed,   but    interpenetrated  with    celestial  virtue, 
and  capable  of  shedcUng  forever  a  healing  spiritual 
aroma    through    a    fainting    and    decaying    world. 
Why  should  the  beUef  in  future  punishments  attract 
the  Greeks  and  Romans,  who,  according  to  Gibbon 
himself,  were  abandoning  their  immemorial  Styx  and 
Tartarus?    How   could  the   Christian   morality   be 
attractive  to  the  immoral  masses  whose  hves  it  stig- 
matized, and  to  its  impenitent  rulers?    The  causes 
that  Gibbon  assigns  are  as  much  effects  as  causes. 
Their  own  origin  needs  first  to  be  explained,  above 
all  their  combination  in  Christianity  and  at  that  time. 
As  Cardinal  Newman  has  well  put  it  (Grammar  of 
Assent,  pp.  445  and  446):  ''If  these  causes  are  ever 
so  available  for  his  purpose,  still  that  availableness 
arises  out  of  their  coincidence,  and  out  of  what  does 
that  coincidence  arise?    Until  this  is  explained  noth- 
ing is  explained,  and  the  question  had  better  be  let 
alone.    These   presumed  causes  are   quite   distinct 
from  each  other,  and  I  say  the  wonder  is  how  they 
came  together.     How  came  a  multitude  of  Gentiles 
to  be  imbued  with  Jewish  zeal?    How  came  zealots 
to  submit  to  a  strict  ecclesiastical  regime?    What 
connection  has  such  a  regime  with  the  immortality 
of  the  soul  ?    Why  should  immortality,  a  philosoph- 
ical doctrine,  lead  to  belief  in  miracles,  which  is  called 


46         THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

a  superstition  of  the  vulgar?  What  tendency  have 
miracles  and  magic  to  make  men  austerely  virtuous? 
Lastly,  what  power  has  a  code  of  virtue  as  calm  and 
enlightened  as  that  of  Antoninus  to  generate  a  zeal 
as  fierce  as  that  of  Machabeus?  Wonderful  events 
before  now  have  apparently  been  nothing  but  coin- 
cidences; certainly,  but  they  do  not  become  less  won- 
derful by  cataloguing  their  constituent  causes,  unless 
we  show  lK)w»they  come  to  be  constituent/' 

There  is  no  parallel  to  this  in  the  spread  of  Mo- 
hammedanism. The  doctrine  of  Islam  was  spread 
by  the  sword.  The  idolaters,  the  heathen,  were  ex- 
terminated, the  Jews  and  Christians  allowed  to  live, 
but  in  the  most  humiUating  subjection  and  sur- 
rounded with  odious  restrictions.  The  lot  of  the 
Oriental  churches  under  Islam  was  the  saddest  im- 
aginable. There  have  been  wars  innumerable  among 
Christians  in  the  name  of  religion,  but  they  are  usually 
against  the  law  of  Jesus,  while  according  to  Moham- 
med the  sacred  war  ought  i  o  be  chronic.  Islam  is  a 
national  travesty  of  some  of  the  best  elements  of 
Judaism  and  Christianity,  elevated  to  the  dignity  of 
a  universal  religion.  It  is  a  poor,  weak,  grotesque 
worship,  such  as  might  arise  in  the  brain  of  a  vision- 
ary cataleptic  and  among  a  half -savage  people.  It 
identifies  Church  and  State.  It  is  a  wretched  replica 
of  Byzantine   Caesaropapism,   and  in   all   essential 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY,  47 

points  is  only  a  low-grade,  universalized  Arabism. 
It  was  the  sense  of  political  greatness,  of  national 
destiny,  that  made  its  first  followers  fanatically  brave. 
They  fell  upon  peoples  long  unaccustomed  to  any 
resistance,  in  a  moment  when  the  military  strength 
and  system  of  the  Empire  were  weakened  by  long 
wars,  at  a  crisis  when  its  own  provinces  turned 
traitor  and  admitted  the  enemy  for  the  sake  of  re- 
venge, because  of  the  religious  oppression  and  the 
civil  despotism  of  Constantinople.  How  different 
is  all  this  from  the  spiritual  victory  of  Christianity 
with  all  its  elevating  influences  and  the  embellish- 
ment and  perfection  of  all  human  life  with  which  it 
comes  in  contact! 

In  the  first  chapter  of  his  Epistle  to  the  Romans 
St.  Paul  puts  his  finger  on  the  chief  source  of  opposi- 
tion to  the  preaching  of  Christianity,  the  frightful 
immorality  of  the  Roman  world.  That  is  the  usual 
source  of  hatred  for  the  preacher  of  the  Gospel, 
whether  it  comes  from  the  Iroquois  or  the  Chinese  or 
some  mediaeval  barbarian  chief.  Renan  will  not 
admit  that  it  was  as  bad  as  St.  Paul  depicts  it.  But 
the  rare  examples  of  virtue  that  he  cites  are  scattered 
over  a  long  time,  and  only  serve  to  intensify  the  moral 
horror  of  the  reality.  The  imperfect  but  less  inmioral 
religions  of  Greece  and  Rome  had  become  corrupted 
by  their  contact  with  the  vile  worships  of  Syria  and 


48  THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY, 

Egypt,  which  made  even  the  army  of  the  Empire 
their  channel  of  propagation  to  the  remotest  West. 
These  orgiastic  rehgions  of  debauch  drove  out  in  turn 
the  mysteries  of  Greece,  and  enthroned  their  horrid 
symbols  in  every  community  of  the  Roman  world. 
Words  fail  to  express,  the  tongue  refuses  to  utter,  the 
wretched  depths  of  moral  degradation  which  human 
society  had  reached  in  the  days  of  the  first  propaga- 
tion of  Christianity.     The  very  worst  vices   were 
sheltered  in  the  temples  dedicated  to  the  worship  of 
the  gods.     Unnatural  vice  and  general  infanticide, 
profligacy  and  hcentiousness  in  every  shape,  went  un- 
checked, nay,  were  become  laudable  customs  of  so- 
ciety.   The  popular  amusements,  the  stage,  the  cir- 
cus, the  arena,  were  one  wild  orgy  of  immorahty; 
unfeeling  cruelty  to  the  weak  and  the  helpless  was 
the  order  of  the  day.     Not  only  did  the  gladiators 
die  by  thousands  in  single  combats  to  make  a  Roman 
holiday,  but  whole  armies  of  men  were  compelled  to 
bloody  combat,  for  the  pleasure  of  the  populace.     It 
has  been  said  by  a  great  scholar  that  ''if  the  inner 
life  were  presented  to  us  of  that  period  which  in 
political  greatness  and  art  is  the  most  brilHant  epoch 
of  humanity,  we  should  turn  away  from  the  sight 
with  loathing  and  detestation.     The  greatest  admirer 
of  heathen  writers,  the  man  endowed  with  the  finest 
sensibilities  for  beauty  and  form,  would  feel  at  once 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  49 

that  there  was  a  great  gulf  fixed  between  us  and  them 
which  no  Tvilhngness  to  make  allowance  for  the  dif- 
ference of  age  and  countries  would  enable  us  to  pass.'' 
A  hundred  human  interests  were  opposed  to  the 
spread   of  the  new  doctrine.     The   owners   of  the 
pythonical  girl  and  the  silversmiths  of  Ephesus  were 
only  types  of  a  great  multitude  whose  local  and  tem- 
poral interests  were  affected  by  Christianity,  and  who 
pursued  its  missionaries  with  the  fiercest  hatred.     All 
the  ministers  of  luxury  and  extravagance,  all  the  mul- 
titudes who  hved  by  the  temples  and  the  abominable 
superstitions  of  the  age,  all  the  traffickers  in  human 
flesh,  were  its  sworn  enemies.     Though  the  offspring 
of  Judaea,  for  several  reasons  it  was  the  object   of 
Jemsh  hate  and  opposition,  and  the  Jews  of  the  time 
were  still  a  world-wide  power  with  which  the  Empire 
itself  deigned  to  reckon.     Apostate  brethren,  angry 
excommunicated  members,   jealous  pubHc  teachers 
or  so-called  philosophers,  the  pagan  priesthood,  pro- 
fessional spies  and  informers,  the  very  members  of 
his  own  family,  were  the  daily  cross  of  the  primitive 
Christian.     He  walked  as  with  a  charmed  fife  amid  a 
world  of  enemies. 

Withal,  the  little  comimunities  grew  with  incredi- 
ble rapidity.  Whole  provinces  Hke  Bithynia  were 
Christian  before  Christ  was  one  hundred  years  dead. 
Before  the  end  of  the  second  century  the  most  peace- 


50  THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

fill  of  religions  had  filled  every  city  with  its  adherents, 
and  one  of  its  writers  could  threaten  Roman  society 
with  desolation  if  the  Christian  multitude  abandoned 
it.  With  its  doctrines  of  equahty,  humihty,  charity, 
a  future  Hfe,  one  understands  with  ease  how  it  ap- 
pealed to  the  world  of  slaves  and  lowly  people.  To 
these  it  brought  a  priceless  balm,  the  assurance  of  an- 
other and  a  happier  hfe,  where  the  iniquitous  condi- 
tions of  the  present  would  be  abolished  or  reversed. 
And  yet  with  almost  equal  strength  it  attracted  the 
hearts  of  many  among  the  wealthy  and  the  power- 
ful. Among  the  first  converts  were  Pharisee  priests, 
a  Roman  proconsul,  a  scholarly  physician,  a  Greek 
judge,  noble  Jewish  matrons,  women  of  refinement. 
A  fourth-century  legend  tells  how  at  the  birth  of  Christ 
a  foimtain  of  oil  burst  forth  from  the  soil  of  Rome. 
A  cistern  of  sweet  waters  had,  indeed,  broken  out  in 
the  social  desert  of  the  Grseco-Roman  hfe,  and  al- 
ready the  renown  of  its  virtues  was  noised  abroad  to 
the  ends  of  the  earth.  In  spite  of  the  external  splen- 
dor and  grandeur  of  their  conditions,  a  multitude  of 
the  better  classes  were  suffering  profoundly  from  the 
emptiness,  the  insufficiency,  the  growing  horror  of 
life.  Only  too  often  they  went  out  of  it  by  the  dark 
but  open  door  of  suicide,  and  there  is  a  profound 
truth  in  the  picture  of  their  mental  sadness  and  de- 
spair that  Matthew  Arnold  offers  us : 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY,         51 

"  On  that  hard  pagan  world  disgust 
And  secret  loathing  fell; 
Deep  weariness  and  sated  lust 
Made  human  life  a  hell. 

"  In  his  cool  hall,  with  haggard  eyes. 

The  Roman  noble  lay ; 
He  drove  abroad  in  furious  guise 
Along  the  Appian  way. 

"  He  made  a  feast,  drank  deep  and  fast. 
And  crowned  his  brow  with  flowersg 
No  easier  nor  no  quicker  passed 
The  impracticable  hours." 

Unwittingly  the  aristocratic  writer  Tacitus  is  the 
first  to  reveal  the  names  of  Roman  nobles  who  took 
refuge  in  the  teachings  of  Jesus:  Pomponia  Grsecina, 
the  wife  of  the  Roman  conqueror  of  Britain;  Flavins 
Clemens,  the  Roman  consul,  with  his  wife  and  niece; 
the  two  Flavise  Domitillse,  whose  Christianized  fam- 
ily cemetery  may  yet  be  seen  at  Rome.  Before  the 
year  100  a.d.  the  family  of  the  Acilii  Glabriones, 
the  proudest  in  Rome,  was  Christian.  Henceforth 
the  epitaphs  of  the  Catacombs  show  us  the  descend- 
ants of  Cicero  and  Atticus  and  Seneca  among  the 
humble  adorers  of  Jesus,  often  themselves  blessed 
martyrs— like  Cseciha  and  Agnes.  In  the  oldest 
parts  of  the  oldest  Catacombs  we  come  across  the 
broken  epitaphs  of  Christian  iEmihi,  CorneUi,  Max- 
imi,  Attici,  Pomponii,  Bassi,  and  many  others  of  the 
foremost  famihes  of  repubhcan  Rome.    The  pagan 


52  THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY, 

priests,  the  philosophers,  the  magistrates,  might 
sneer  at  the  rustic,  uncultured,  and  gross  mob  of 
Christians;  the  latter  knew  that  before  the  altar  of 
many  a  little  Christian  church  there  knelt  with  them 
the  near  relatives  of  the  rulers  of  the  world.  The 
rulers  of  the  world  themselves  were  more  than  once 
attracted  by  the  doctrine  and  the  society  of  Jesus. 
Long  before  Constantine,  the  Christians  could  claim 
the  Emperor  Phihp  the  Arabian  as  one  of  their  body, 
while  the  Abgars  and  the  Tigranes,  kings  of  Edessa 
and  of  Armenia,  were  Christians  before  the  end  of  the 
third  century,  as  was  also  the  Greek  king  of  the 
Crimean  Bosphorus.  It  is  an  old  Christian  tradition 
that  Tiberius  desired  to  place  Christ  among  the  gods, 
but  was  prevented  by  the  Senate.  So,  too,  the  Em- 
peror Hadrian  is  said  to  have  built  many  temples  to 
Christ  in  which  no  statue  was  placed.  The  Emperor 
Marcus  Aurehus  was  attracted  by  the  healing  powers 
of  the  Christian  bishops,  as  was  his  near  successor, 
Septimius  Severus.  Caracalla  was  brought  up  by  a 
Christian  nurse,  with  Christian  playmates.  Com- 
modus  had  a  Christian  wife.  Although  Ms  prime 
minister,  Ulpian,  was  so  anti-Christian  that  he  is  said 
to  have  codified  the  legislation  hostile  to  the  Church, 
Alexander  Severus  placed  the  portrait  of  Christ  in  his 
private  chapel,  and  commended  the  concord  and  pru- 
dence of  the  Christian  bishops  to  Ins  generals  and 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY.         53 

magistrates  as  models  for  their  administration.  An 
early  legend  made  Christians  of  the  wife  and  daugh- 
ter of  Decius,  perverting  no  doubt  the  real  fact  of  the 
Christianity  of  the  wife  and  daughter  of  Diocletian. 
A  hundred  years  before  Constantine,  the  Christians 
had  become  the  problem  of  the  Empire.  As  they  mul- 
tiplied, the  state  wavered  again  and  again  in  its  treat- 
ment of  them.  Pagan  Caesars  and  Christian  bishops 
were  indeed  mutually  exclusive  of  one  another,  as 
Decius  very  clearly  saw.  The  former  could  never 
break  away  from  the  antique  view  of  state  suprem- 
acy and  all-sufficiency.  On  the  other  hand,  learned 
Christians  were  forecasting  little  by  little  the  dawn 
of  a  reconcihation  that  to  some,  however,  seemed 
the  last  word  of  folly  and  spiritual  blindness. 


ST.  PAUL:  TEACHER  OF  THE  NATIONS/ 


With  its  own  subtle  sense  of  justice  the  Christian 
Church  has  conferred  from  very  remote  antiquity  the 
title  of  doctor  or  teacher  on  certain  famous  bishops 
like  Augustine  or  Ambrose,  Gregory  Nazianzen  or 
Chrysostom.  She  has  recognized  in  these  men  sanc- 
tity of  Hfe,  depth  and  purity,  vastness  and  perti- 
nency of  doctrine,  evident  vocation,  and  large  disci- 
pleship.  And  these  have  sufficed  in  her  eyes  to  make 
her  single  out  such  men  and  Hft  them  up  on  the  great 
cathedrae  of  authority,  whence  their  very  words  in 
all  future  time  become  spiritual  law  and  guidance,  as 
once  the  opinions  of  an  Ulpian  or  a  Papinian  sufficed 
for  the  citizen  of  Rome  or  Antioch.  The  world  has 
always  yearned  for  instruction.  Man  is  an  animal 
docile,  a  teachable  animal.  Whether  it  be  poet, 
prophet,  lawgiver,  king,  judge,  philosopher,  or  his- 

» Discourse  delivered  on  the  occasion  of  the  Commemoration 
of  the  Conversion  of  St.  Paul  (Jan.  25,  1899),  feast  of  the 
Faculty  of  Theology. 

55 


56       ST.  PAUL:  TEACHER  OF  THE  NATIONS. 

torian,— man  has  always  admired,  sometimes  too 
ardently,  those  who  have  loosened  the  bonds  of  his 
ignorance  and  taught  him  necessary  truths,  useful 
arts,  the  reasons  of  things,  the  mysteries  of  life  and 
death.  Of  all  the  Greek  myths,  that  of  Prometheus, 
the  teaching-god,  is  the  most  human-natural;  he 
must  be  cold  indeed  who  can  read  unmoved  the  woe- 
ful plaint  of  this  bright  spirit,  riveted  by  jealous  Zeus 
"with  clenching  teeth  of  adamant"  to  the  stony  face 
of  Caucasus! 

To  this  immemorial  gratitude  of  our  race  we  owe 
the  names  and  deeds  of  a  Solon  and  a  Lycurgus,  a 
Numa,  a  Socrates,  an  Herodotus,  to  speak  only  of 
those  wortliies  whom  the  classic  peoples  have  em- 
balmed in  their  memories  as  their  best  and  greatest 
teachers. 

It  was  not,  therefore,  without  reason  that  the  Chris- 
tian Church  symbolized  her  gratitude  for  the  services 
of  her  great  teachers  by  the  selection  of  an  ancient 
term,  which  she  elevated  from  mean  surroundings, 
and  consecrated  henceforth  to  the  illustrious  com- 
pany of  those  who  teach  the  things  of  God,  the  soul, 
human  conduct,  the  future  life,  the  nature,  quahties, 
beauties,  and  uses  of  all  being, — notably  of  man,  the 
world,  and  all  the  infinite  relations  of  the  creature 
to  the  Creator. 

We  are  gathered  to-day  to  make  our  yearly  com- 


ST.  PAUL:  TEACHER  OF  THE  NATIONS.       57 

memoration  of  the  selection  of  such  a  teacher  at  a 
turning-point  of  the  world's  history.  Only,  a  teacher 
immeasurably  greater  than  any  Augustine  or  Chrys- 
ostom,  one  at  whose  feet  they  confessed  themselves 
happy  to  listen  and  learn,  a  teacher  whose  calling 
was  directly  from  the  mouth  of  God  Himself,  whose 
doctrine  was  acquired  by  no  slow  process  of  human 
training,  but  poured  from  above  into  his  capacious 
mind,  even  as  the  drawer  of  water  fills  his  vase  or  urn 
from  the  generous  outpouring  of  the  fountain. 

Paulus  Doctor  Gentium!  Paul  the  Teacher  of  the 
Nations!  This  is  an  ancient  title,  so  ancient  that  it 
comes  down  to  us  from  those  dim  ages  when  the  first 
Christians  were  making,  not  writing,  history.  It  is 
embedded  in  the  oldest  and  sweetest  prayers  of  the 
Roman  Church.  It  must  have  echoed  in  the  cen- 
turies of  persecution  from  the  mouth  of  a  Pius  or  a 
Cornelius  as  he  besought  the  intercession  of  the 
founders  of  his  see.  It  is  solemnly  acknowledged 
by  the  original  churches  as  often  as  they  make  men- 
tion of  the  episcopal  supremacy,  the  ^^pontificium" 
of  St.  Peter.  Indeed,  more  than  once  he  lays  claim 
to  it  himself,  directly,  as  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Gala- 
tians  (c.  ii.)  and  indirectly  in  the  account  of  his  con- 
version that  the  Acts  furnish  us  (c.  ix.).  It  is  as 
a  teacher  that  he  makes  his  first  public  appearance 
in   the   Christian   comiuunities,    as    autodidact,    as 


58       ST,  PAUL:  TEACHER  OF  THE  NATIONS. 

laaTtocxtoXos,  the  equal  of  any  of  the  twelve  in 
knowledge  and  commission.  And  throughout  the 
documents  that  have  come  to  us  from  his  hand  he 
maintains  at  its  original  high  rating  the  office  of 
teacher,  whether  he  be  summarizing  in  vigorous  and 
luminous  traits  the  history  of  human  morals,  or 
expounding  the  philosophy  of  human  wrong  and 
imperfection,  or  pleading  for  a  fugitive  slave, 
or  reviewing  the  astounding  dealings  of  God  with 
Israel. 

But  no  teacher  becomes  such  without  preparation. 
He  may  be  called  out  of  the  regular  order,  and  his 
doctrine  may  be  delivered  to  him,  Mum  teres  atque 
rotundum,  from  a  superior  and  infallible  source.  Yet 
he  is  a  man,  with  a  mind  and  a  heart.  He  has  be- 
hind him  infancy  and  boyhood  and  youth.  There 
are  in  him  indestructible  elements  of  heredity,  pa- 
rental, racial,  mental.  And  he  has  hved  in  given 
surroundings,  long,  intimately,  unsuspectingly, — 
among  other  men  who  themselves  are  mouthpieces 
of  old  tradition  and  custom.  His  mind  and  heart 
have  each  their  own  hfe-history,  very  even  and  une- 
ventful, it  may  be, — and  then  again,  perhaps,  very 
checkered,  broken,  and  stormy.  Still,  in  either  case, 
there  is  in  every  human  soul  an  organic  growth,  an 
unfolding  as  of  a  flower  or  a  fruit.  Indeed,  what 
flower  or  fruit  suffers  the  thousand  delicate,  shifting, 


ST.  PAUL:  TEACHER  OF  THE  NATIONS.       59 

elusive  influences  that  the  mind  of  a  child  does, — 
influences  more  varied,  more  constant  than  the  play 
of  shadow  and  sunHght,  the  motion  of  the  atmos- 
phere, the  flowing  ether,  the  heaving  of  the  sea? 

So  this  Jew,  born  at  Tarsus  in  Cilicia,  in  that  hollow 
of  the  Mediterranean  where  the  Hellene  and  the  Sem- 
ite were  wont  to  meet  as  at  a  conmion  outpost,  bore 
all  his  life  the  traces  of  liis  early  education.  It  col- 
ored his  teaching,  his  arguments,  his  language,  his 
similes.  He  was  an  Hellenistic  Jew,  but  not  hke  that 
Jew  whom  Aristotle  knew  and  who  was  an  Hellene  in 
very  spirit  and  temper,  not  like  those  Asmonseans 
and  Herodians  who  w^ere  even  then  frittering  away 
the  last  relics  of  the  traditions  of  Israel.  No,  Paul  was 
a  Jew,  intus  et  in  cute,  of  the  soundest  "  stock  of  Israel, 
of  the  tribe  of  Benjamin,  a  Hebrew  of  the  Hebrews, 
as  touching  the  Law  a  Pharisee.'^  He  had  gone 
through  the  primary  schools  of  the  Jewish  quarter  at 
Tarsus,  had  learned  the  text  and  the  interpretation 
of  the  Law,  perhaps  been  the  equal  of  Josephus,  who 
was  a  learned  teacher  of  it  at  the  age  of  fourteen. 
Thrice  a  day  he  had  turned  his  face  to  the  Holy  City 
and  poured  out  the  glorious  benedictions  of  the 
Schmone-Esre,  the  Jewish  Credo,  the  very  text  which 
one  may  yet  read  in  any  Jewish  book  of  prayer. 
Twice  a  day  he  had  piously  uttered  the  Schma,  the 
confession  of  Jahve's  unity  and  power  and  glory  taken 


60       ST.  PAUL:  TEACHER  OF   THE  NATIONS. 

from  Deuteronomy  and  Numbers — the  Doxology  of 
Judaism.  He  had  worshipped  regularly  in  the  syn- 
agogue by  the  blue  and  tideless  waters  that  laved  the 
wharves  of  his  native  town.  There  he  read  the  Scrip- 
tures through  in  a  three  years'  course,  commented  on 
them  and  heard  them  commented  on.  He  observed 
the  three  signs  of  a  strict  Jew — the  fragments  of 
white  wool  on  the  four  corners  of  his  cloak  that  kept 
the  commandments  before  him,  the  little  roll  of 
parchment  containing  the  Law  hung  up  on  the  right- 
hand  door-post  of  his  room,  the  Tepliillim  or  the 
parchment  slip  of  the  Law  fastened  upon  his  right 
arm,  and  the  Tephilla  or  similar  slip  bound  tight 
upon  his  forehead.  In  the  observance  of  Sabbaths, 
foods,  fastings,  purifications,  none  was  stricter  than 
Saul  of  Tarsus.  And  when  he  went  up,  between  thir- 
teen and  sixteen,  to  the  advanced  school  or  academy 
of  Gamahel  at  Jerusalem,  every  Pharisee  and  Scribe 
rejoiced,  for  now  a  new  strength  appeared  upon  the 
horizon,  even  a  youth  of  destiny.  He  was  indeed  a 
little  Origen  of  the  Jews,  whose  bosom  seemed  al- 
ready the  abiding-place  of  the  Holy  Spirit — a  re- 
freshing fountain  of  prophecy  so  long  dried  up. 

Nevertheless,  in  all  these  years  he  had  not  escaped 
the  omnipresent  influences  of  Hellas.  Since  Alex- 
ander, the  Orient  was  slave  to  the  charm  and  the 
puissance  of  Greek  letters,   Greek  art,   and  Greek 


ST.  PAUL:  TEACHER  OF  THE  NATIONS.       61 

philosophy.  Parthian  kings  assisted  at  the  plays  of 
Euripides,  and  the  Greek  drama  left  the  impress  of 
its  genius  even  beyond  the  Indus  and  as  far  as  the 
sacred  waters  of  the  Ganges.  Asia  Minor,  though 
only  its  fringes  were  Greek  in  blood,  counted  numer- 
ous cities  of  Greek  origin  scattered  among  the  ancient 
inhabitants  of  its  high  valleys  and  tablelands.  This 
was  notably  the  case  along  all  the  great  roads  by  sea 
or  by  land.  And  Tarsus  was  at  the  juncture  of  two 
such  roads,  the  seaway  coming  eastward  from  the 
Hellespont  and  northward  from  Tyre,  Sidon,  or 
Csesarea,  and  the  landway  that  came  down  through 
the  deep  and  narrow  passes  of  CiHcia.  In  the  time 
of  Paul  it  was  even  an  academic  centre.  The  Stoic 
Zeno  had  once  hved  there  and  caught  from  life-worn 
and  world-wise  Orientals  the  germs  of  his  powerful 
doctrine.  Roman  law  was  doubtless  taught  in  its 
schools,  or  in  not  distant  Berytus.  There  is  some 
sHght  smattering  of  Greek  culture,  not  in  style  or 
thought,  but  in  fragments  of  poetry  or  proverbs,  in 
the  great  Apostle.  He  knows  considerable  about  the 
law  of  the  Empire.  He  has  not  the  pastoral  sim- 
plicity of  Amos,  or  the  love  of  nature  of  Isaias,  but 
draws  his  metaphors  from  the  camp,  the  arena,  the 
lives  of  soldier  and  wrestler  and  runner,  from  the  city- 
world,  the  world  of  resolve  and  action.  When  he 
was  not  earning  his  living  by  weaving  the  coarse 


62       ST.  PAUL:  TEACHER  OF  THE  NATIONS. 

Glician  cloth  made  of  goats'  hair,  he  must  have  had 
leism-e  to  move  about  among  the  splendid  monuments 
of  old  Greek  civilization,  temples,  baths,  markets, 
porticoes,  liippodromes,  fountains,  statues,  inscrip- 
tions. Here,  too,  perhaps,  in  this  old  centre  of  Greek 
and  Oriental  philosopliies,  in  tliis  minor  university- 
town,  he  imbibed  that  supreme  contempt  for  the 
"wisdom  of  the  world,''  'Hhe  disputers  of  the  world," 
the  "loftiness  of  human  speech,"  the  "persuasive, 
the  learned  words  of  human  wisdom."  Such  phrases 
refer  not  to  human  reason,  but  to  the  impotency  of 
philosophy  to  usurp  the  office  of  religion.  One  day 
in  Athens  the  disputers  will  call  him,  in  turn,  a  "  sower 
of  words,"  and  turn  a  contemptuous  back  upon  his 
glorious  message.  But  his  teaching  will  grow^,  and 
Justinian  will  at  last  close  their  useless  schools  that 
a  Nero  is  now  flattering. 

The  soul  of  Paul,  then,  must  have  undergone  a 
remarkable  formation.  It  was  filled  with  intense 
rehgious  enthusiasm  from  youth.  It  was  forced  into 
profound  acquaintance  with  the  theology  of  Juda- 
ism. Its  fibre  was  hardened  Hke  fine  steel  by  hourly 
conflict  with  self,  by  reasoned  contempt  of  human 
wisdom  and  glory,  above  all  by  the  worship  of  an 
ideal  Messias  of  Israel  who  should  one  day  reward 
him  and  his  for  their  most  painful  finical  fidelity  to 
the  Law,  their  long  sorrowing  exile  among  these 


ST.  PAUL:  TEACHER  OF  THE  NATIONS.       63 

infidel  Greeks  and  Asiatics — a  Messias  who  should 
come,  even  soon,  in  splendor  and  majesty  and  power, 
and  inaugurate  in  the  Holy  City  the  final  reign  of  the 
just  and  the  saints,  of  all  those  who  had  been  loyal 
and  true  as  adamant  in  the  midst  of  wretched  apos- 
tasy and  pitiful  composition  and  accommodation. 

It  was  a  mighty  time,  big  with  the  new  humanity, 
one  to  which  all  the  ages  had  been  looking  forward 
as  to  their  complement,  the  very  fulness  of  time. 
The  melodious  Mantuan  and  the  aged  Simeon  echo 
the  same  cry  of  the  bursting  human  heart.  The 
forces  of  the  earth  were  erasing  or  eUminating  one 
another  in  favor  of  Rome.  The  political  world  was 
taking  on  an  entirely  new  bent  and  trend,  to  last  for 
many  a  day — nay,  to  our  own  time,  just  as  when  the 
material  cover  of  earth  was  finally  warped  and  swollen 
and  sunk  into  its  actual  shape.  The  agitation  of 
the  times  threw  out  extraordinary  characters — 
Syllas,  Pompeys,  Csesars,  Herods,  Augusti — in  the 
mad  race  for  the  prize  of  universal  dominion.  It  was 
truly  a  struggle  of  godhke  giants  of  personaHty. 

But  for  firmness  and  tenacity  of  purpose,  clear 
vision  of  his  scope  and  the  means  to  realize  it,  utter 
self-abandoning  devotion  to  a  cause  infinitely  higher 
and  holier  than  liimself;  for  long-biding  patience, 
intense  sustained  activity,  iron  will  that  laughs  all 
obstacles  away;    for  thorough  dominancy  of  men 


64       ST.  PAUL:  TEACHER  OF  THE  NATIONS, 

and  situations^  and  the  power  to  compel  the  whole 
army  of  his  workers  witliin  the  Hnes  laid  down  by  his 
own  personal  genius — in  a  word,  for  all  the  qualities 
of  a  commander,  St.  Paul  is  more  than  equal  to  any 
man  of  his  time.  This  is  the  view  of  St.  Chrysostom, 
perhaps  the  most  sympathetic  and  observant  of  the 
students  of  St.  Paul,  out  of  whose  delicate  analysis 
more  than  one  modern  has  drawn. 

In  St.  Paul  character  shines  out  dominant,  supreme. 
Out  of  whatever  loom  came  that  great  heart  and 
mind,  they  were  of  one  pattern,  fitted  perfectly  to 
one  another.  He  is  a  man,  rude  and  hard  and  stern, 
if  you  will,  but  certain,  self-identical,  reliable. 
There  is  in  him  no  shiftiness  of  the  ordinary  apostate, 
no  plasticity  of  the  standard  Greek.  It  is  always 
yea,  yea,  or  nay,  nay.  He  sees  all  things  in  one  clear, 
strong,  unwavering  hght,  a  hght  that  so  permeates 
his  conscience  and  floods  its  remotest  corners  that  he 
may  not  be  false  to  it.  Through  all  theorizing  and 
casuistry  of  human  ingenuity,  Jew  and  Greek,  he 
sees  the  original  golden  threads  of  duty  and  right- 
eousness that  lead  directly  from  the  soul  to  God.  And 
seeing  them  he  seizes  them  and  holds  them  forever- 
more. 

It  is  because  St.  Paul,  as  a  disciple  of  Judaism,  de- 
veloped every  native  energy  of  his  being  that  he  was 
one  day  pre-eminently  fitted  for  the  office  of  a  teacher; 


ST.  PAUL:  TEACHER  OF  THE  NATIONS.       65 

because  in  him  the  most  ideal  Judaism  of  the  last  days 
came  to  the  front  that  he  was  fitted  above  all  other 
Jews  to  be  specially  called  by  Jesus;  because  in  his 
heart  met  the  tides  of  Pharisaism  and  Hellenism, 
that  he  was  chosen  to  be  the  saving  unction  of  the 
latter.  Who  else  of  the  Pharisees  had  the  magnani- 
mous soul  capable  of  penning  the  first  chapter  of  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans,  of  announcing  an  apostleship 
for  obedience  to  the  faith  in  all  nations  for  the  name 
of  Jesus  Christ,  of  declaring  himself  debtor  to  the 
Greeks  and  to  the  barbarians,  i.e.,  to  all  humanity? 

II. 

The  world  was  indeed  the  only  fit  school  for  a  man 
of  his  training.  Alexander  wept  because  he  had  no 
more  worlds  to  conquer;  Paul  was  heart-broken  be- 
cause he  could  not  offer  to  his  Master,  Christ,  every 
one  of  those  miniature  worlds  called  men,  in  whom 
alone  the  outer  world  has  meaning,  praise,  end,  and 
dignity.  For  over  thirty  years  this  extraordinary 
teacher  travelled  the  highways  and  the  by-ways  of 
the  Orbis  Terrarum,  the  Grseco-Roman  world  of  an- 
tiquity. It  is  doubtful  if  any  official  or  legionary  was 
more  frequently  on  the  great  strata  or  roads  that 
bound  the  principal  cities;  certain  that  none  trav- 
elled them  more  foot-sore,  worn,  and  weary,  but 


66       ST.  PAUL:  TEACHER  OF  THE  NATIONS. 

radiant  with  faith  and  beaming  with  resolution.  Who 
knows  as  he  that  narrow  strip  of  Syrian  coast,  north- 
ward from  Cffisarea,  scarcely  more-  than  a  ribbon  of 
stony  pathway  in  some  places?  How  often  he  read 
the  pompous  inscriptions  of  dead  conquerors  on  the 
rocks  above  him!  There  is  the  Gulf  of  Issus  on 
whose  shores  Darius  staked  and  lost  the  Orient! 
There  are  the  Gates  of  Syria  and  the  Gates  of  Cilicia 
through  which  all  Eastern  conquerors  have  passed  to 
reach  the  highlands  of  Asia  Minor  and  thence  the 
Hellespont!  How  often  he  crossed  and  recrossed 
the  iEgean  and  the  Mediterranean,  moving  among 
the  islands  famous  in  ancient  story!  There  is  the 
coast  of  proconsular  Asia  with  its  five  hundred  Greek 
cities,  its  rich  trade  with  East  and  West  piled  up  in 
Miletus  and  Smyrna  and  Ephesus,  its  countless  ate- 
hers  of  Ehodian  sculptors,  the  remnants  of  whose 
works  now  fill  the  museums  of  a  world,  its  schools  of 
philosophers,  poets,  and  rhetoricians, — all  its  golden 
human  Hfe,  abundant,  throbbing,  and  varied!  There, 
too,  is  old  IHon,  on  the  slope  of  Ida,  between  Simois 
and  Scamander;  and  if  the  Apostle  knew  Homer, 
perhaps  some  verses  of  that  strange  shadowy  struggle 
of  men  and  gods  crossed  his  mind  as  the  timid  shore- 
keeping  galley  drifted  by,  so  close,  perhaps,  that  his 
eyes  could  rest  on  ''Mseander's  crooked  arms"  and 
t'Xanthus' gulfy  flood/' 


ST.  PAUL:  TEACHER  OF  THE  NATIONS.       67 

It  was  a  time  of  infinite  curiosity  and  endless  pere- 
grination, this  golden  age  of  peace  and  wealth,  but 
in  Paul  of  Tarsus  there  is  no  trace  of  things  that  were 
then  and  to  him  minor  and  insignificant.  On  every 
journey  he  is  the  herald  of  Jesus  Christ.  Whether 
he  toils  among  the  mountains  of  Cappadocia,  or  the 
plateaux  of  Galatia,  or  the  swamps  of  Lycaonia; 
whether  he  goes  from  one  Macedonian  town  to  an- 
other, or  crosses  the  Midland  Sea  to  face  great  Caesar 
himself,  he  is  everywhere  and  always  teacher,  mis- 
sionary, apostle,  prophet,  founder.  In  all  history 
there  is  no  such  example  of  sustained  concern  and 
anxiety  for  the  growth  of  an  idea.  And  if  the  origins 
of  our  religion  are  mean  and  humble  as  far  as  power 
and  wealth  go,  they  are  grandiose,  subhme,  if  we 
reflect  on  the  men  who  planted  it,  the  hardships  they 
bore,  the  contempt  they  Hved  down,  the  hatred  they 
turned  to  love,  the  love  they  lifted  to  the  enthusiasm 
of  martyrdom. 

What  a  world  it  was!  The  external  order  was 
faultless;  the  Roman  Peace  was  everywhere  observed, 
save  by  a  wandering  pirate  or  some  irreducible  brig- 
ands. Arts  and  letters  and  philosophy  flourished  on 
all  sides.  Commerce  grew  and  industry  flourished, 
and  the  court-poets  could  flatter  the  brain  of  the 
vast  machine  that  the  golden  age  of  Saturn  had 
come,  precisely  at  the  time  when  the  Jews  looked 


68       ST.  PAUL:  TEACHER  OF  THE  NATIONS. 

for  a  Messias  who  was  to  break  the  wings  and  crush 
the  talons  of  that  Roman  eagle  which  looked  down 
exultantly  from  the  gates  of  the  Holy  City. 

But  withal  it  was  a  hard  and  a  wicked  world. 
And  when  its  apologists  have  said  all  that  can  be 
said  for  it,  there  remains  yet  so  sad  a  picture  that 
the  heart  instinctively  shudders,  a  picture  of  might 
priming  right  without  the  defence  of  eternal  pro- 
test, of  labor  despised  and  poverty  trampled  upon, 
of  slaves  without  rights,  children  without  moral 
training,  and  women  without  honor  or  respect. 
The  moral  sense  was  all  but  dead.  Philosophy 
had  lost  its  power  over  the  multitudes,  even  if  it 
served  to  console  or  guide  an  unhappy  few.  Let- 
ters were  yet  a  thing  of  joy,  a  refuge.  But  when 
did  letters  ever  fill  the  cravings  of  the  soul  that  is 
morally  weak  and  unsettled?  Moral  advice  never 
flowed  more  elegantly  than  from  the  Hps  of  Seneca, 
yet  who  followed  it?  He  himself  as  little  as  any 
one,  The  Stoics  themselves  felt  that  what  was 
wanted  was  a  model,  a  perfect  just  man,  in  whom 
every  virtue  should  see  mirrored  all  its  possibih- 
ties.  It  was  this  personaHty  which  Christianity 
offered.  It  bridged  by  the  hfe  of  Christ  the  hope- 
less gulf  between  the  abstract  and  the  concrete. 
And  then  it  sent  forth  into  the  world  universal 
teachers  hke  Paul,  who  lived  over  again,  as  men. 


ST.  PAUL:   TEACHER  OF  THE  NATIONS.       69 

the  life  of  their  divine  Teacher,  and   shed  on  all 
sides  the  aroma  of  His  infinite  virtue. 

III. 

As  a  teacher  St.  Paul  has  had  no  equal  in  the 
history   of   humanity.     Overflowing   with   the  con- 
sciousness that  his  doctrine  is  not  of  man,  but  of 
God,  he  knows  no  wavering,  but  goes  straight  to 
the  point  at  issue— Jesus  Christ   is  God  and  Man. 
He    was    crucified    and   rose    again.    In    Him   our 
broken   and   weakened   nature   was   dipped,    as   it 
were,  in  a  refreshing  bath,   and  a  new  love  and 
energy  added  to  it.    We  are  again,  by  these  mys- 
teries, cliildren  of  the  Father  now  appeased,  and 
brothers  of  the  Son  of  God,  who  has  atoned  through 
all  eternity  for  the  shortcomings  of  human  nature, 
has  wiped  out  the  contractual  slavery  under  Satan, 
and  reopened  the  narrow  but  straight  path  to  eter- 
nal Hfe,  to  reunion  with  the  juridical  head  of  our 
race,  Christ  Jesus,  foreshadowed  by  Adam's  origi- 
nal headship  and  responsibility. 

It  is  a  deep  and  subtle  teaching,  so  deep  that 
the  plummet  of  thought  has  not  yet  fathomed 
its  last  recesses,  so  subtle  that  it  furnishes  food 
for  minds  of  every  type  and  cahbre.  This  first 
commentator  on  the  Life  of  Christ   rose    at   one 


70       ST.  PAUL:  TEACHER  OF  THE  NATIONS. 

bound  to  the  highest  empyrean  of  thought,  and 
exhausted  all  the  fundamental  capacities  of  the 
mind  as  against  the  Hfe  and  spirit  of  Jesus.  Paul 
may  defend  his  conclusions  by  a  sublime  dialectic 
of  his  own,  very  peculiar  and  very  forceful.  He 
has  not  reached  them  by  any  slow-winding  stair- 
case of  digressive  thought.  Paul  has  seen;  it  has 
been  revealed  unto  him,  in  the  blinding  hght  of 
that  dread  hour  amid  the  flowery  fields  and  apple- 
orchards  and  flowing  waters  that  surround  Damas- 
cus, in  the  cabinet  of  Ananias,  in  those  three  years 
of  meditation  and  self-searching  beyond  the  Hues 
of  Greek  and  Jewish  hfe, — among  the  aboriginal 
Saracens  or  Bedouins  of  the  Arabian  desert.  Here 
he  has  learned  to  know  the  difference  between 
the  spirit  of  the  law,  its  scope  and  character,  and 
the  'ugly  thorny  hedge  which  degenerate  doctors 
had  built  up  about  it.  Here  God  transformed, 
in  the  silence  and  peace  of  nature,  the  proud  and 
ardent  soul  into  an  instrument  of  choice,  supple, 
devoted,  courageous,  intelligent.  He  shed  the 
fantastic  theology  of  the  Pharisees;  he  rose  to  a 
sublime  conception  of  the  One  God  as  Father, 
all-merciful,  the  parent  of  all  humanity.  He 
learned  that  Judaism  was  not  the  end  of  creation, 
but  a  step,  a  phase,  a  temporary  refuge,  a  beacon, 
a  pulpit,  and  that  man,  humanity,  all  hfe,  all  the 


ST.  PAUL:  TEACHER  OF  THE  NATIONS.       71 

crowding  ages  that  shall  ever  be — this  was  the 
reason  of  the  Messias,  His  kingdom,  His  triumph, 
and  His  glory. 

In  long  and  tender  colloquies  with  his  divine 
Master  Paul  rose  above  all  mankind,  and  took 
on  something  of  the  personal  manner  and  authority 
of  Christ  Himself.  In  the  same  breath  he  is  dust 
and  ashes,  and  then  again  he  thunders  and  flashes 
truth  after  truth,  warning  after  warning,  appeal 
after  appeal.  His  bosom  is  the  channel  of  divinest 
thoughts  and  ardors,  and  at  times  he  swoons  away 
— the  frail  vessel  of  the  flesh  is  all  but  consumed 
by  these  terrific  fires.  He  stands  an  interme- 
diary between  the  soul  and  God,  like  the  very  bind- 
ing link  of  religion,  and  he  is  filled  with  the  most 
solenm  consciousness  that  on  his  vicarious  tongue 
and  action  depends  the  fate  of  a  world.  He  is  like 
one  of  those  narrow  estuaries  through  which  the 
waters  of  an  ocean  are  driven,  whose  bed  and  shores 
are  torn  and  churned  and  gashed  by  the  elemen- 
tal conflict  of  wind  and  waves. 

Not  only  is  this  man  a  devoted  teacher,  holding 
back  nothing  of  himself;  he  is  also  a  man  of  single 
purpose.  His  own  person  sinks  away  and  is  lost 
— he  is  voice,  hand,  channel,  only  an  instrimient 
fitted  to  the  will  of  Jesus  Christ.  Faith  and  love 
have  all  but  drowned  his  individual  self:    he  is 


72       ST.  PAUL:  TEACHER  OF  THE  NATIONS. 

willing  to  be  an  anathema,  a  castaway,  a  thing  of 
scorn  and  pity  for  his  brethren,  because  his  own 
love  hath  so  loved  them. 

He  is  also  a  teacher  of  sublime  courage.  Men 
admire  to-day  whoever  stood  out  in  former  ages 
for  truths  we  now  perceive  in  their  entirety — 
Galileo,  HarvTy,  Jenner,  any  forerunner  of  the  true, 
the  good,  and  the  beautiful  as  we  taste  or  know 
them.  But  how  faint  the  merit  of  all  such  when 
compared  with  the  courage  of  a  man  Hke  Paul! 
His  teaching  was  unpopular,  new,  and  difficult. 
It  was  full  of  rock-like  principles  about  wliich  the 
powers  of  earth  must  one  day  rage  and  the  peoples 
shout  vain  things.  It  cut  in  between  man  and 
wife,  between  father  and  son,  between  the  spiritual 
and  the  temporal,  between  the  soul  and  the  body, 
between  God  and  Satan,  between  the  City  of  Sin 
and  the  New  Jerusalem.  Scarcely  had  it  been 
formulated  when  men  nailed  its  Founder  to  a  gib- 
bet that  He  took  for  a  throne.  And  scarcely  had 
it  got  across  the  borders  of  Palestine  when  all 
life  and  society  were  filled  with  uproar,  when  there 
was  a  cry  thoughout  all  himaanity:  ^^To  your 
tents,  0  Israel!'^ — and  almost  in  the  twinkling  of 
an  eye  there  stood  over  against  one  another  the 
hosts  of  organized  society  and  the  little  band  of 
brethren  who  knew  that  now  the  hour  had  come 


ST.  PAUL:  TEACHER  OF  THE  NATIONS,       73 

to  go  out  from  kin  and  home  and  neighbor,  and 
seek  the  new  Land  of  Promise. 

We  can  only  admire  from  afar  the  unparalleled 
courage  of  the  man  who  broke  down-  that  alliance 
of  earth-powers,  and  freed  the  soul  of  humanity 
from  the  vain  terrors  and  superstitions  and  still 
vainer  errors  and  prejudices  that  held  it  hke  a 
crust. 

He  is  not  a  teacher  from  his  cathedra  alone,  a 
Plato  or  a  Zeno;  he  is  a  man  of  action.  See  how 
he  follows  up  the  openings  for  Christ  at  Corinth, 
in  Galatia,  in  Macedonia!  See  how  he  forecasts 
his  journeys  to  Rome,  to  Spain!  See  how  he  bears 
about  in  his  heart  the  needs  of  the  poor,  over- 
taxed, decaying  city  of  Jerusalem,  how  he  is  anx- 
ious over  schisms,  elections,  friendships,  new  doc- 
trines! He  has  caught  from  the  heart  of  Jesus 
Christ  something  of  His  undying  enthusiasm  of 
humanity. 

A  teacher  must  be  called  by  higher  authority, 
so  great  are  the  responsibilities  toward  society,  so 
supreme  are  the  demands  made  upon  the  office, 
so  far-reaching,  for  good  or  evil,  the  effects  of  its 
administration.  Almost  at  death^s  door,  St.  Pat- 
rick took  up  the  pen  in  his  aged  and  palsied  fingers 
to  prove  that  he  had  not  entered  Ireland  without  a 
proper  calling.     St.  Paul  himself  avers  that  no  one 


74       ST.  PAUL:  TEACHER  OF  THE  NATIONS. 

may  minister  unless  called  of  God,  like  Aaron. 
Again  and  again  he  recalls  his  own  vocation,  given 
through  Christ.  His  secretary  puts  down  the 
history  of  it  'in  the  note-book  of  their  travels.  It 
is  his  pride  and  support;  he  will  even  go  up  to 
Jerusalem  to  the  chief  of  the  Church  and  the  prin- 
cipal apostles,  to  have  their  juridical  approbation, 
lest  he  run  in  vain,  or  outside  of  the  new  so- 
ciety. 

Yet  his  calling  was  an  extraordinary  one.  How 
often  since  then  has  it  happened  in  the  history  of  the 
Church  that  the  greatest  things  have  been  done, 
not  by  those  born  in  the  faith,  but  by  men  who 
have  drifted  into  it  by  many  long  and  painful  wan- 
derings! It  is  the  mystery  of  the  eleventh  hour, 
of  the  vocation  of  our  ancestors,  of  the  corner- 
stone that  the  builders  rejected,  the  mysterious 
law  of  the  success  of  failure,  of  the  triumph  of 
minorities.  Justin,  Athenagoras,  Clement,  Cyp- 
rian, Augustine, — to  speak  only  of  very  ancient 
examples, — are  not  these  the  later  teachers  of  the 
Christians,  and  did  they  not  all  go  through  the 
preliminary  schools  of  paganism? 

For  all  students  of  theology  St.  Paul  has  a  real 
domestic  significance.  He  is  the  father  of  Chris- 
tian theology.  In  him  are  contained  radicitus,  in 
germ,    all    the    ecclesiastical    sciences — the     inter- 


ST.  PAUL:  TEACHER  OF  THE  NATIONS.       75 

pretation  of  Scripture,  the  basic  theories  of  Chris- 
tian doctrine,  the  principles  of  morality  and  the 
details  of  conduct,  the  origins  of  the  public  wor- 
ship or  liturgy,  the  first  chapters  of  Christian  his- 
tory, the  spirit  and  method  of  apologetics,  the  prim- 
itive institutions  of  Christian  life  and  practice. 
What  Homer  was  to  the  Greek  mind,  the  source  of 
all  progress  and  evolution;  what  Vergil  was  to  the 
Roman  mind,  the  mentor  of  Roman  virtue,  the 
index  of  Roman  fortune — that  and  infinitely  more 
St.  Paul  was  to  the  Christian  mind.  In  him  Jesus 
Christ  raised  up  and  inspired  an  infalhble  law- 
giver and  teacher,  as  a  sure  corner-stone  to 
His  little  society,  about  which  all  the  weak,  uncer- 
tain human  elements  of  the  time  must  coalesce. 

St.  Paul  is,  moreover,  the  parent  of  all 
great  Christian  literature.  Justin  and  the  Apol- 
ogists, Clement  of  Rome,  Irenseus, — all  the  leading 
Christian  thinkers  are  dominated  by  him  in  the 
second  century.  Old  Abercius  of  Hieropohs  is 
right  in  asserting  his  leadership,  and  Renan  is 
wrong  in  saying  that  his  influence  paled  in  that 
century.  The  heresy  of  Marcion  and  its  vigorous 
refutation  show  that  during  all  the  sub-apostolic 
time  St.  Paul  was  the  focus  of  Catholic  theological 
life.  The  story  of  Paul  and  Thecla  shows  how 
well  he  was  remembered  about  the  middle  of  the 


76       ST.  PAUL:  TEACHER  OF   THE  NATIONS. 

second  century,  when  legend  had  already  begun 
to  spin  its  web  about  his  life-story.  Augustine, 
Chrysostom,  the  great  Cappadocian  Fathers,  Pat- 
rick, Gregory,  Bernard,  are  great  torches  lit  along 
the  ages  from  his  flame.  Of  St.  Patrick  the  cau- 
tious and  judicious  Tillemont  said  that  no  other 
saint  so  recalled  the  Apostle  Paul.  The  great 
Christian  Councils  of  the  first  six  centuries  are 
dominated  by  his  theology,  and  it  has  been  well  said 
that  in  spirit  and  guidance  he  is  their  true  president. 

In  his  pastoral  epistles  he  has  left  us,  as  it  were, 
the  first  manual  of  clerical  conduct.  And  all  later 
works,  like  the  Apologia  of  Gregory  Nazianzen, 
the  De  Sacerdotio  of  Chrysostom,  the  Regula  Pas- 
toralis  of  Gregory  the  Great,  the  De  Contemptu 
Mundi  of  Innocent  III.  are  but  echoes,  adaptations 
of  these  first  chapters  of  formation  and  guidance. 

Finally,  he  is  to  us  the  model  of  our  deahngs 
with  the  people  of  God.  He  has  flammantia  verba 
and  scBva  indignatio  for  evil,  but  only  pity  for  the 
sinner.  He  is  full  of  compassion  and  gentleness 
for  the  poor,  the  humble  in  society,  the  outcast. 
For  those  who  are  Christ's  liis  heart  overflows  with 
love;  for  those  who  are  not  yet  of  Christ  he  is 
thoughtful,  ingenious,  laborious, — he  must  win 
them  or  perish  in  the  attempt.  For  Jew  and  Gen- 
tile he  has  reason  and  argument,  history  and  phi- 


ST.  PAUL:  TEACHER  OF   THE  NATIONS.       77 

losophy,  when  occasion  demands  it.  He  takes  up 
the  discussion  in  the  Areopagus;  perhaps  he  con- 
versed with  Seneca.  In  his  Roman  apartment 
all  were  free  to  come  and  go,  and  he  was  no  indo- 
lent dreamer  in  those  years. 

There  opens  before  us  a  world  not  unlike  that 
into  which  Paul  went  down  and  came  out  victo- 
rious— a  world  to  be  won  again  for  Jesus  Christ 
by  the  example  of  our  lives  and  by  the  victories 
of  the  mind;  a  world  as  proud  and  self-satisfied 
as  any  Rome  or  Greece,  yet  gentler,  milder,  more 
refined  and  accessible.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is 
harder  to  convert  it  to  the  Christian  view  of  things, 
for  it  has  once  fallen  away,  and  the  saving  dew  does 
not  often  fall  twice  on  the  same  pastures.  To 
speak  to  this  world,  to  be  believed  by  it,  we  must 
appropriate  something  of  the  spirit  and  the  methods 
of  the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles.  It  must  be  con- 
vinced of  our  genuine  affection  for  it.  It  must  see 
in  us  the  natural  virtues  it  admires  and  practises. 
It  must  find  in  us  elevation  of  view,  breadth 
and  abundance  of  human  sympathies,  gentlemanli- 
ness,  genuine  tolerance,  courtesy  of  mind,  heart, 
and  tongue,  a  large  and  hopeful  patience  in  God^s 
wise  management  of  His  own  work.  We  must,  in 
very  fact,  according  to  our  talent  and  our  circum- 
stances, become  all  things  to  all  the  men  of  our 


78       ST.  PAUL:  TEACHER  OF  THE  NATIONS. 

age,  if  we  would  truly  take  up  the  mission  and  the 
teaching  of  the  Apostle  of  the  Nations. 

God  grant  that  the  number  of  such  disciples  of 
St.  Paul  increase,  and  that  under  the  segis  of  his 
spirit  and  his  faith  there  may  be  again  an  united 
Christendom,  the  only  worthy  outcome  of  the  labors 
of  so  subhme  a  guide  and  teacher!  God  grant  us, 
as  time  goes  on,  an  ever  larger  number  of  men  de- 
voted to  the  work  of  the  ministrj^,  possessed  with 
one  purpose,  filled  with  the  old  and  the  new  learn- 
ing, passionately  fond  of  their  own  age  and  their 
own  country,  with  great  hearts  to  feel  for  the  needs 
of  both,  sure  and  clever  instincts  to  adapt  what  is 
needful,  enlightened  minds  to  execute  the  same, 
and  transcendent  enthusiasm  to  sustain  them  in 
their  work  and  to  inflame  with  the  same  consum- 
ing spirit  each  his  own  time  and  generation! 

Impendar  et  superimpendar!  Let  this  be  the  cry 
of  every  noble  soul  who  would  live  for  others,  not  for 
himself  !  Let  it  be  your  answer  to  every  tempta- 
tion to  a  life  of  ease  and  security  when  the  vast  con- 
flict calls  for  zeal,  fiery  and  mordant,  but  breath- 
ing love  and  self-sacrifice!  Let  no  cynicism,  do- 
mestic or  foreign,  dim  the  freshness  and  the 
impact  of  your  ardor!  Let  no  tale  of  worldly-wise 
rationalizing  experience  relegate  you  to  the  rear  as 
camp-followers!    Rather  be   ever   well    up   in  the 


ST.  PAUL:  TEACHER  OF  THE  NATIONS.       79 

front,  along  the  red  ridge  of  battle,  where  alone 
the  prizes  of  success  are  to  be  had!  Mors  acerha^ 
fama  perpetiuij  stabit  vetus  memoria  facti. 

There  are  yet  mighty  deeds  to  be  done  for  Jesus 
Christ,  even  the  reconquest  of  an  apostate  and  dis- 
illusioned world;  and  they  can  only  be  done  in  the 
uncalculating  warrior  spirit  that  sustained  St.  Paul 
and  enabled  him  to  create  anew  for  liis  divine  Mas- 
ter a  real  world,  the  inner  world  of  the  soul,  behef, 
ideals,  hopes,  that  world  of  which  things  and  sciences 
are  only  the  beautiful  but  transitory  envelope. 


A  BISHOP  OF  ROME  IN  THE  TIME  OF 
DOMITIAN  (A.D.  81-96). 

Out  of  the  wreck  of  the  earliest  Christian  literature 
there  has  come  down  to  us  a  document  of  great  price 
— the  Epistle  of  St.  Clement  to  the  Corinthians. 
From  time  immemorial  it  has  been  attributed  to 
the  third  successor  of  St.  Peter,  although  the  in- 
scription of  this  golden  letter  bears  the  name  of  the 
whole  Church  at  Rome : 

''The  Church  of  God  sojourning  in  Rome  to  the 
Church  of  God  sojourning  in  Corinth,  to  them  that 
are  called  and  sanctified  by  the  will  of  God  through 
Our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Grace  be  to  you,  and  peace 
from  Almighty  God  through  Jesus  Christ  be  mul- 
tipHed.'' 

The  personal  note  is  so  developed  in  its  few  but 
weighty  pages,  the  assimilation  in  one  heart  of  the 
great  truths  of  the  Old  and  the  New  Testament  is  so 
pronounced,  the  style  is  so  unique,  and  the  tone  of 
authority  so  firm,  that  from  all  antiquity  the  epis- 
tle has  been  recognized  as  very  specially  this  ancient 

81 


82  A  BISHOP  OF  ROME 

Pope's  own  composition.  Less  than  a  hundred 
years  after  its  reception,  Dionysius  of  Corinth 
informs  us  that  it  was  read  every  Sunday  in  his 
church  as  the  Epistle  of  Clement.  St.  Irenseus, 
his  contemporary,  calls  it  the  very  important 
letter  of  the  Roman  Church  to  the  Corinthian 
Church  in  the  days  of  Clement.  Hegesippus,  an- 
other contemporary,  living  at  Rome  about  a.d.  170, 
knows  it  as  the  Epistle  of  Clement  to  the  Corinthi- 
ans. Its  genuineness  is  beyond  a  doubt:  in  addi- 
tion to  the  above,  it  was  clearly  before  a  writer  of 
the  first  quarter  of  the  second  century,  St.  Polycarp 
of  Smyrna;  for  its  phraseology  reappears  in  his  fa- 
mous Epistle  to  the  PhiHppians.  As  Polycarp  was 
a  disciple  of  St.  Ignatius  of  Antioch,  we  are  thereby 
assured  that  the  Epistle  of  Clement  was  current  in 
all  the  Mediterranean  lands  almost  on  the  morrow  of 
its  promulgation  in  the  community  at  Corinth.  This 
illustrates  the  method  and  rapidity  with  which  the 
apostohc  correspondence  was  carried  on.  Indeed, 
for  a  long  time  all  Christian  Uterature  is  epistolary 
in  character. 

In  the  last  decade  of  the  first  century  the  Corin- 
thians had  given  notable  scandal  by  their  rebellious 
disposition  in  the  matter  of  the  election  of  a  bishop 
and  presbyters.  St.  Clement,  at  the  first  lull  in 
the  persecution  of  Domitian,  chides  them  for  the 


IN  THE  TIME  OF  DOMITIAN,  83 

jealousy  and  envy  which  they  have  thus  laid  bare  to 
a  scoffing  and  malicious  world.  In  calm  and  stately 
language  the  Old  Testament  examples  of  submission, 
humihty,  and  peaceableness  are  brought  forward  as 
a  reproof  of  the  seditious  temper  of  the  Corinthians. 
Among  other  arguments,  the  conduct  of  the  Re- 
deemer, the  analogy  of  all  creation  that  moves  in 
perfect  order  and  harmony;  the  imitation  of  God, 
who  wills  humility,  union,  and  concord;  the  example 
of  earthly  government,  the  conduct  of  the  apostles, 
the  deadliness  of  schisms,  are  in  turn  urged  upon  the 
ringleaders  of  the  opposition,  to  whom  a  final  appeal 
is  made  for  the  restoration  of  order.  They  should 
exile  themselves,  if  needed;  for  the  concord  of  hearts 
is  as  necessary  in  the  Church  as  faith  and  good 
works.  He  recommends  to  the  Corinthians  his  leg- 
ates, the  first  ambassadors  ever  sent  by  a  pope,  in 
a  tender  formula  that  sums  up  the  intention  and 
spirit  of  the  epistle : 

"Send  back  to  us  speedily  our  envoys  Claudius 
Ephebus  and  Valerius  Bito,  with  Fortunatus  as  well, 
in  peace  and  joy;  in  order  that  they  may  the  sooner 
bring  the  news  of  that  peace  and  concord  which  we 
desire  and  pray  for;  in  order  that  we,  too,  may  the 
sooner  rejoice  over  your  return  to  quiet  and  order. 
The  grace  of  Our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  be  with  you  and 
with  all  in  every  place  who  have  been  called  by  God 


84  A  BISHOP  OF  ROME 

through  Him.  Through  whom  be  unto  Him  glory, 
honor,  power,  majesty,  and  dominion  everlasting  from 
the  ages  that  are  past  for  ever  and  ever.  Amen.'' 
In  more  than  one  respect  the  Epistle  of  Clement 
recalls  the  writings  of  St.  Paul;  according  to  very 
ancient  traditions  of  the  Roman  Church,  he  was  the 
personal  disciple  of  both  its  holy  founders.  Numer- 
ous echoes  of  the  Pauline  epistles  haunt  the  ear  of 
the  reader  in  every  paragraph.  There  is  the  same 
proleptic  habit  of  speech,  the  same  Semitic  absence 
of  concern  for  those  processes  of  thought  that  are 
common  to  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  and  to  us  their 
intellectual  offspring.  It  is  truly  the  work  of  an  Hel- 
lenistic Jew,  of  a  man  whose  Semitic  soul  spoke 
perforce  in  the  idiom  of  Homer  and  Demosthenes, 
but  lived  with  Moses  and  Isaias.  Had  we  nothing 
else  from  this  wonderful  half-century  of  transition, 
we  should  know  that  a  mighty  religious  current  was 
then  forming  in  the  world,  along  which  the  Good 
Tidings  of  redemption  were  being  borne,  away  from 
the  ancient  maternal  hegemony  of  the  Synagogue, 
into  the  hearts  of  Greeks  and  Romans,  who  yet 
moved  about  in  forum  and  agora  unconscious  that 
Jesus  was  already  predestining  them  to  apostleship 
and  martyrdom.  In  passing,  we  may  say  that  it 
disproves  thoroughly  the  modern  contention  that 
the  Roman  Church  was  then  divided  into  a  Petrine 


IN  THE  TIME  OF  DOMITIAN,  85 

and  a  Pauline  faction;  Clement  speaks  of  both  with 
equal  affection,  and  quotes  both.  Had  any  such 
dissension  existed  at  Rome,  that  Church  would 
scarcely  have  read  to  the  Church  of  Corinth  this 
solemn  lesson  of  concord. 

In  this  earhest  apostolic  letter  of  the  Popes  the 
critical  historian  of  theology  will  find  the  germs  of 
every  science  that  the  Church  has  cherished  and 
nurtured  in  her  long  career.  It  is  the  oldest  docu- 
ment of  canon  law,  the  first  non-inspired  chapter  of 
church  history,  the  earliest  interpretation  of  those 
principles  of  moral  theology  that  lie  embedded  in 
the  Old  and  the  New  Testament.  It  contains  the 
oldest  Preface  of  the  Mass  that  we  know,  and  is, 
therefore,  most  precious  material  for  the  history  of 
Christian  worship.  It  is  an  irreproachable  witness 
to  the  books  of  the  New  Testament  as  revealed 
and  inspired;  the  student  of  pastoral  theology  could 
read  no  more  admirable  specimen  of  that  calm  self- 
possession  and  ^' sweet  reasonableness"  that  ought 
to  denote  among  men  the  guide  of  souls. 

How  refreshing  it  is,  in  the  dearth  of  satisfactory 
accounts  of  the  earliest  days  of  Christianity,  to  meet 
with  the  following  pen-picture  of  the  persecutions 
of  Nero  and  Domitian — to  see  before  us  Peter  at 
Rome  in  the  language  of  one  who  saw  him  there,  to 
see  Paul  on  his  way  to  Spain,  to  behold  the  Grcus 


86  A  BISHOP  OF  ROME 

Maximus  crowded  to  the  vomitories,  and  the  horrid 
joy  of  its  ferocious  multitude  as  they  looked  down 
on  noble  matrons  and  tender  maidens  tossed  on  the 
horns  of  wild  bullS;  or  made  to  act  out  in  their  bodies 
the  cruellest  scenes  of  Greek  mythology!  After  a 
touching  description  of  the  evils  that  jealousy  and 
envy  had  worked  in  the  Old  Dispensation,  the  writer 
comes  suddenly  down  to  the  living  present : 

''But  enough  of  these  examples  from  days  of  old. 
Let  us  take  those  great  ones  who  are  nearest  to  our 
time, — let  us  take  the  grand  example  which  our  own 
generation  supplies.  It  was  for  jealousy  and  envy 
that  the  greatest  and  most  righteous  pillars  of  the 
Church  were  persecuted  and  fought  even  unto  the 
death.  Let  us  set  before  our  eyes  the  good  apos- 
tles: Peter,  who  for  unrighteous  jealousy  submitted 
not  to  one  nor  two  but  many  labors,  and  who,  hav- 
mg  thus  borne  witness,  passed  to  the  appointed  place 
of  glory;  Paul,  who  by  reason  of  jealousy  and  envy 
was  able  to  point  by  his  example  to  the  prize  of  pa- 
tience. Seven  times  was  he  thrown  into  prison;  he 
was  driven  into  exile,  he  was  stoned;  then,  when  he 
had  preached  in  the  East  and  the  West,  he  attained 
the  noble  renown  which  his  faith  won  for  him,  teach- 
ing righteousness  to  the  whole  world,  and  coming  to 
the  farthest  limits  of  the  West.  Lastly,  he  bore 
witness  before  rulers:  and  thus  passed  from  the 


IN  THE   TIME  OF  DOMITIAN.  87 

world,  after  proving  himself  a  marvellous  pattern  of 
virtue. 

"  To  these  men  of  holy  conversation  we  must  add  a 
goodly  company  of  elect  souls  who  gathered  around 
them,  and  who,  when  by  reason  of  jealousy  they  were 
subjected  to  countless  indignities  and  tortures,  stood 
forth  as  a  noble  example  among  us.  It  was  by 
reason  of  jealousy  that  women  were  persecuted  and 
were  subjected,  under  the  guise  of  Danaides  and 
Dirces,  to  dreadful  and  unholy  violence,  until  they 
won  the  goal  for  which  their  faith  struggled,  and 
they  received,  despite  their  feebleness,  a  noble  prize." 

There  is  a  lyric  ring  about  several  chapters  of  this 
epistle  that  recalls  the  noblest  utterances  of  Eze- 
chiel  or  David.  When  Clement  would  persuade  his 
Corinthians  to  observe  the  subordination  of  souls 
so  admirably  illustrated  by  him  from  the  Old  and 
the  New  Testament,  he  adds  to  his  arguments  the 
analogy  of  nature: 

"The  heavens  obey  Him,  moving  in  peace  accord- 
ing to  His  ordinance.  Day  and  night  complete  the 
course  which  He  has  appointed  them,  giving  no  hin- 
drance one  to  the  other.  The  sun,  the  moon,  and  the 
stars  in  their  twinkling  dance,  preserve  due  concord 
and  never  swerve  aside,  while  according  to  His  plan 
they  unfold  the  courses  assigned  to  them.  The 
earth  teems  with  produce  at  her  proper  seasons  in 


88  A  BISHOP  OF  ROME 

obedience  to  His  will;  and  sendeth  forth  food  in 
abundance  for  men  and  beasts  and  all  the  Hving 
creatures  upon  her  face,  without  variance  and  with- 
out any  change  from  what  He  has  appointed/' 

In  his  burning  eagerness  to  restore  the  Church  of 
Corinth  to  its  pristine  harmony,  the  Bishop  of  Rome 
does  not  hesitate  to  appeal  to  the  example  of  the 
legionaries  of  Rome,  whose  obedience  to  their  chiefs 
was  proverbial.  Were  it  true,  as  some  maintain, 
that  St.  Clement  is  the  same  person  as  the  con- 
temporary Christian  consul,  Flavins  Clemens,  these 
words  of  his  would  possess  an  added  interest: 

^'Let  us  serve,  therefore,  brethren,  with  all  deter- 
mination under  His  faultless  commands.  Let  us 
take  a  lesson  from  the  soldiers  who  serve  under  our 
rulers;  and  let  us  mark  the  order,  the  promptitude, 
the  submissiveness  with  which  they  execute  the 
orders  they  receive.  They  are  not  all  prefects,  or 
rulers  of  thousands,  or  rulers  of  hundreds,  or  rulers 
of  fifties,  and  so  on;  but  every  man  in  his  own  rank 
executes  the  orders  he  receives  from  his  superiors. 
The  great  cannot  exist  without  the  small,  nor  the 
small  without  the  great.  There  is  a  kind  of  connec- 
tion between  all  things,  and  herein  Ues  their  ser- 
viceableness.  To  take  our  body  as  an  example :  the 
head  without  the  feet  is  nothing,  even  as  the  feet 
without  the  head  are  nothing;  in  truth,  the  smallest 


IN  THE  TIME  OF  DOMITIAN,  89 

members  of  our  body  are  necessary  and  useful  to  the 
whole  body.  But  all  the  members  agree  in  submit- 
ting to  one  authority,  that  the  soundness  of  the 
whole  may  be  preserved  " 

Strong  with  all  these  arguments  from  revelation, 
reason,  and  experience,  he  approaches  the  delicate 
question  of  the  constitution  of  the  Church,  that  now 
for  the  first  time  since  the  death  of  SS.  Peter  and 
Paul  was  up  for  discussion.  It  is  instructive  to  note 
that  he  reaches  this  point  only  about  the  middle  of 
the  epistle,  in  the  forty-second  chapter,  after  he  has 
exhausted  all  his  powers  of  persuasion.  Clement  is 
an  admirable  Christian  judge.  He  has  had  long  ex- 
perience in  those  domestic  weekly  courts  of  the 
primitive  communities,  in  which,  every  Monday,  the 
quarrels  and  discords  of  the  "  saints  "  were  heard  by 
the  bishop  and  his  presbyters,  in  order  that  all  might 
be  ready  to  approach  the  mystic  banquet  on  the 
following  Sunday.  He  will  not  lay  down  any  law 
so  long  as  he  can  hope  to  recall  the  erring  by  the  way 
of  the  heart;  in  this  new  teaching  no  murmuring 
and  recrimination  ought  to  follow  the  sentence  of 
one  who  judges  in  the  person  and  place  of  Christ: 

"The  apostles  were  taught  the  Gospel  for  our 
sakes  at  the  feet  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ;  Jesus 
Christ  was  sent  out  from  God,  and  the  apostles  from 
Christ.     Both,  therefore,  issued  from  the  will  of  God 


90  A  BISHOP  OF  ROMS 

-mth  due  order.  Having,  therefore;  received  His  in- 
structions and  being  finally  established  through  the 
Resurrection  of  Our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  being 
confident  in  the  Word  of  God,  they  went  forth  with 
full  conviction  from  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  preached 
that  the  kingdom  of  God  was  to  come.  And  so,  as 
they  preached  in  the  country  and  in  the  towns,  they 
proved  by  the  Spirit  the  first-fruits  of  their  work  in 
each  place,  and  appointed  them  to  be  bishops  and 
deacons  among  them  that  should  believe." 

At  last,  with  infinite  charity,  but  without  any  con- 
cession to  the  rebelHous  element  at  Corinth,  this 
man  of  ''sweet  reasonableness"  utters  his  decision 
with  the  directness  of  a  Roman  magistrate,  but  in  a 
spirit  that  was  new  to  the  tribunals  of  Rome.  In 
this  first  and  ever-memorable  decision  of  a  Roman 
bishop  we  have  a  perfect  model  of  those  decisions 
and  provisions  that  henceforth  will  go  to  make  up 
the  law  of  the  new  Christian  society,  the  canon  law. 
Obedience  is  based  on  the  known  will  of  the  mild 
and  loving  Redeemer.  Not  imperial  constitution  or 
rescript,  but  the  Revealed  Word  of  God,  is  here  the 
source  of  authority  and  the  measure  of  submission. 
Slavish  fear  and  ruinous  hypocrisy  are  no  more  the 
motives  of  compliance  with  law,  but  an  intimate 
conviction  that  the  existing  order  of  the  churches 
comes  down  from  the  divine  Master  and  is  essential 


IN  THE  TIME  OF  DOMITIAN,  01 

to  the  religion  itself.  A  rational  humility  and  a 
willingness  to  accept  the  great  new  principle  of  soli- 
darity in  Jesus  are  laid  down  as  the  corner-stone  of 
the  new  social  edifice.  Thereby  was  opened  the 
career  of  a  novel,  all-transforming  jurisprudence 
that  never  ceased  thenceforth  to  develop  side  by  side 
with  the  jurisprudence  of  Rome,  and  to  show  to  the 
world  in  the  persons  of  a  Clement,  a  Pius,  a  Victor, 
a  Calixtus,  a  Cornehus,  men  no  less  distinguished  in 
the  annals  of  justice  than  a  Salvian,  a  Gains,  an 
Ulpian,  and  a  Papinian. 

"No  less  did  our  apostles  know  through  Our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  that  there  would  be  strife  over  the  dig- 
nity of  the  bishop's  office.    For  this  very  reason, 
having  received  complete  foreknowledge,  they  ap- 
pointed the  said  bishops  and  deacons,  and  ordained 
that  at  their  death  their  ministry  should  pass  into 
the  hands  of  other  tried  men.    We  hold,  therefore, 
that  it  is  an  act  of  injustice  to  thrust  out  from  their 
ministry  men  who,  with  the  good  will  of  the  entire 
Church,  received  their  position  at  the  hands  of  apos- 
tles, or  of  other  honored  men  of  a  later  time,  and 
who,  in  all  humility,  ministered  to  the  flock  of  Christ 
without  offence,  peaceably  and  without    presump- 
tion, and  who  have  on  many  occasions  been  well 
reported  by  all.    For  we  shall  be  guilty  of  no  small 
sin  if  we  reject  men  who  have  holily  and  without 


92  A  BISHOP  OF  ROME 

offence  offered  the  gifts  pertaining  to  the  bishop's 
office.  [He  means  here  the  holy  sacrifice  of  the 
Mass.]  Blessed  are  the  priests  who  have  departed 
hence  in  time  past;  for  they  continued  till  their  time 
was  fulfilled  and  their  work  had  borne  fruit:  they 
have  no  fear  of  being  removed  from  their  appointed 
place.  We  must  needs  beware;  for  ye  have  taken 
upon  you  to  put  some  men  out  of  their  office,  although 
they  walk  discreetly  and  have  held  their  position 
without  offence. '' 

When  we  read  these  pages,  that  even  now  seem 
dimmed  with  the  tears  of  apostolic  eyes  and  charged 
with  the  agonies  of  an  apostolic  heart,  we  do  not 
wonder  that  nearly  all  the  most  ancient  legislation 
of  the  Christian  churches  that  has  come  down  to  us, 
whether  apocryphal  or  interpolated,  should  have 
sheltered  itself  under  the  name  of  Clement  of  Rome, 
as  though  to  commend  its  spirit,  its  trend,  and  its  de- 
details,  by  the  authority  of  so  profound  a  master  of 
the  principles  of  Christian  society. 

With  persistency  he  returns  to  his  task;  for  this 
epistle  is  more  like  a  long  conversazione  between  a 
loving  father  and  his  wayward  children  than  any- 
thing else.  He  would  have  the  Corinthian  Christians 
zealous  and  ardent,  but  against  the  comimon  enemy, 
not  against  one  another : 

*'Be  contentious,  brethren,  be  jealous  concerning 


m  THE  TIME  OF  DOMITIAN.  93 

the  things  that  belong  unto  salvation.  Ye  have  ex- 
amined the  Holy  Scriptures;  they  are  true,  they 
were  given  through  the  Holy  Spirit:  ye  know  that 
in  them  there  is  written  nothing  that  is  imrighteous 
or  false.  Ye  will  not  find  in  them  that  righteous 
men  have  been  removed  from  the  company  of  the 
holy.  .  .  .  Why,  then,  are  there  strifes  and  angers 
and  parties  among  you?  Have  we  not  one  God  and 
one  Christ?  Was  not  one  Spirit  shed  forth  upon  us? 
Have  we  not  one  calHng  in  Christ?  Why  do  we  rend 
and  tear  asunder  the  members  of  Christ  and  are  di- 
vided against  our  own  body?  Why  have  we  reached 
such  a  pitch  of  madness  that  we  forget  we  are  mem- 
bers one  of  another?  ...  It  is  shameful,  beloved, 
very  shameful;  nay,  more,  it  is  im worthy  of  your 
education  in  Christ — ^that  it  should  be  reported  that 
the  Church  of  Corinth,  so  long  and  firmly  estab- 
hshed  as  it  is,  should  be  divided  against  its  presby- 
ters at  the  bidding  of  one  or  two  ringleaders.  Nor 
has  this  report  come  only  to  us:  it  has  reached  even 
those  who  hold  not  with  us;  so  that  ye  cover  the 
name  of  the  Lord  with  blasphemies  because  of  your 
folly,  and  are  laying  up  danger  for  yourselves  be- 
sides." 

Toward  the  end  of  his  epistle  the  writer  ceases  to 
argue.  In  his  person  the  Church  of  Rome  convokes 
the  Church  of  Corinth  before  the  altar  of  the  cross. 


94  A   BISHOP  OF  ROME 

The  Bishop  of  Rome  betakes  himself  to  prayer — a 
last  and  irresistible  weapon  in  the  Christian's  ar- 
mory. But  to  no  ordinary  private  prayer:  it  is  the 
solemn  and  public  service  of  the  Catholic  Church 
that  we  hear,  and  in  particular  one  of  those  grand- 
iose Prefaces  of  the  Mass  such  as  were  sung  in  the 
earliest  days  of  Christianity,  when  the  personal  en- 
thusiasm for  Jesus  was  like  a  clear  new  flame  in  the 
hearts  of  His  priests;  when  every  meeting  of  Chris- 
tians was  one  long  dithyrambic  service,  during  which 
the  evil  world  and  the  reign  of  Antichrist  faded 
from  this  lower  consciousness,  to  give  place  to  the 
vision  of  a  victorious  and  rewarding  Christ,  en- 
throned above  the  sun  and  the  stars,  and  looking 
down  with  ineffable  tenderness  on  His  disciples  as 
they  moved  upward  and  onward  beneath  the  whips 
and  stings  of  hfe,  the  offscourings  of  tliis  world,  the 
scandal  of  the  Jew  and  the  stumbling-block  of  the 
Greek.  These  sublime  phrases,  a  cento  of  Old  Tes- 
tament passages  and  texts,  are,  perhaps,  the  oldest 
document  of  the  holy  Mass  outside  of  the  inspired 
writings.  They  are  also  like  a  flash-light  picture  of 
the  daily  hfe  and  temper  of  the  Christians  of  Rome, 
nay,  of  the  entire  Roman  Orient,  as  will  be  seen  at 
once  by  all  who  are  famihar  with  those  venerable 
and  archaic  liturgies  that  go  back  to  within  hailing 
distance  of  tliis  very  time: 


IN  THE  TIME  OF  DOMITIAN.  95 

"We  call  upon  Thee,  0  Master,  to  be  our  helper 
and  defender!  [Ps.  cxix.  114.]      Save  such  of  us  a^ 
are  m  affliction;  have  pity  on  the  humble;  raise  up 
the  fallen;  show  Thyself  to  such  as  are  in  want;  heal 
the  sick;   convert  those  of  Thy  people  that  are  in 
error;    feed   the    hungry;    ransom   our   prisoners- 
raise  up  the  feeble;  comfort  the  weak-hearted.    Let 
all  the  Gentiles  know  that  Thou  art  God  alone  [I 
Kings  viii.  60],  and  that  Jesus   Christ  is  Thy  Son 
and  that  we  are  Thy  people  and  the  sheep  of  Thy 
pasture.     [Ps.  c.  3.]    Thou  didst  manifest  the  per- 
petual constitution  of  the  universe  by  Thy  works 
therein.    Thou,   0  Lord,   didst  create  the"  world! 
Thou  art  faithful  throughout  all  generations;  Thou 
art  righteous  in  Thy  judgments;  Thou  art  wonder- 
ful in  Thy  strength  and  splendor;  Thou  art  wise  to 
create  and  cunning  to  establish  the  things  that  are 
made;  Thou  art  good  in  Thy  works  which  are  seen, 
and  faithful  with  such  as  put  their  confidence  in 
Thee;    Thou  art  merciful  and  full  of  compassion. 
Oh,  do  Thou  forgive  us  our  transgressions  and  our 
unrighteousnesses,  our  faults  and  our  weaknesses' 
Impute  not  to  Thy  servants  and  Thine  handmaids 
all  their  sin;    but  cleanse  us  thorouglily  by  Thy 
truth,  and  direct  our  steps  that  we  may  walk  in  holi- 
ness and  righteousness  and  simpUcity  of  heart,  and 
that  we  may  do  that  which  is  good  and  well  pleas-^ 


96  A   BISHOP  OF  ROME 

ing  in  the  sight  of  Thee  and  of  our  rulers.  [Ps.  cxix. 
133;  Deut.  xiii.  IS.]  Yea,  Lord,  cause  Thy  face 
to  shine  upon  us  for  blessing  [Ps.  Ixvi.  2],  mth 
peace,  that  we  may  be  covered  by  Thy  mighty  hand 
and  be  delivered  from  all  sin  by  Thy  high  arm. 
[Ex.  vi.  1.]  Save  us  from  them  that  hate  us  with- 
out a  cause.  Grant  peace  and  concord  to  us  and  all 
that  dwell  upon  the  earth,  as  Thou  gavest  it  unto  our 
fathers  when  they  called  upon  Thee  in  faith  and 
truth  with  holiness;  that  we  may  obey  Thy  al- 
mighty and  all-holy  Name,  and  render  submission  to 
our  rulers  and  governors  upon  the  earth.^' 

This  epistle  was  written  less  than  seventy  years 
after  the  crucifixion  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  death  of 
Augustus  was  not  a  century  away.  This  writer  had 
seen  and  conversed  with  SS.  Peter  and  Paul,  and 
had  been  an  eye-witness  of  those  terrible  scenes  of 
the  persecution  of  Nero  that  Tacitus  describes.  On 
his  way  to  some  Christian  service  in  the  domestic 
hall  of  Pudens  or  the  family  cemetery  of  Lucina 
or  Domitilla,  this  man  might  have  often  met  the 
stern  historian  of  the  atrocities  of  Nero  and  Domi- 
tian.  He  might  have  seen  that  Irish  kinglet  whom 
Agrippa,  the  father-in-law  of  Tacitus,  kept  attached 
to  his  person.  The  younger  PHny  was  yet  a  fre- 
quenter of  the  Roman  tribunals,  perhaps  a  careless 
observer;  for  later  on,  when  he  was  confronted  with 


IN  THE   TIME  OF  DOMITIAN.  97 

the  propaganda  of  Christianity  in  Bithynia,  he  seems 
to  have  regretted  his  lost  opportunities.  The  verses 
of  Juvenal  and  Martial  were  still  fresh  on  the  lips  of 
the  spoiled  youth  of  Rome. 

On  one  occasion  Clement  must  have  been  called 
on  to  perform  an  act  of  hospitality  that  was  most 
pleasing  to  Our  Lord.  It  is  related,  apropos  of  Do- 
mitian,  by  Hegesippus,  a  Christian  historian  of  the 
end  of  the  second  century:  The  Emperor  had  heard 
that  certain  descendants  of  the  '' brethren"  of  Christ 
were  preaching  another  kingdom  among  the  Jews. 
He  had  them  brought  to  Rome,  where  they  showed 
him  their  hands  worn  with  toil,  and  assured  him  that 
all  they  owned  between  them  was  one  small  field: 
the  kingdom  they  preached  was  the  kingdom  of 
heaven.  Thereupon  he  dismissed  them  with  con- 
tempt. Clement  and  the  Roman  Christians  surely 
received  and  sheltered  these  descendants  of  the 
''brethren"  of  the  Lord. 

Long  ages  afterward  the  posterity  of  the  families 
related  to  Jesus  were  held  in  honor  throughout  the 
whole  Church.  Origen  speaks  of  them  in  the  third 
century,  and  perhaps  they  still  enjoyed  high  dis- 
tinction in  the  Church  of  the  Nazarenes  that  retained 
its  Jewish  peculiarities  as  late  as  the  fourth  century. 
If  Stephanos,  the  assassin  of  Domitian,  were  a 
Christian,  as  later  rumor  had  it,  Clement  would  have 


98  A   BISHOP  OF  ROME 

mourned  over  that  desperate  act  of  a  freedman  of 
the  Domitillas.  Nowhere  in  the  literature  of  early 
Christianity  is  the  duty  of  civil  obedience,  even  to 
the  most  lawless  rulers,  more  firmly  inculcated  than 
in  this  letter  to  the  Church  of  Corinth.  Perhaps  it 
is  so  because  Clement  had  already  heard  angry  mur- 
murings  among  his  flock  at  the  insensate  conduct  of 
the  apocalyptic  beast. 

"We  may  also  believe  that  Clement  would  visit 
often  the  sepulchres  of  Peter  and  Paul, — the  latter 
on  the  Ostian  Way,  the  former  on  the  outskirts  of 
the  Vatican  Hill,  beside  a  temple  of  Apollo,  where 
now  rises  the  vast  Basilica  of  St.  Peter.  His  pre- 
decessor, Anacletus,  had  already  built  on  the  site  a 
memoria,  or  little  church;  and  doubtless  the  monu- 
ment of  St.  Paul  that  the  Eoman  priest  Gains 
speaks  of,  about  a.d.  200,  was  already  built.  He 
would  be  seated  on  Sundays  in  the  venerable  Chair, 
or  cathedra,  of  Peter  that  is  yet  preserved  in  liis  great 
church,  especially  when  he  celebrated  annually  the 
feast  of  the  apostle. 

For  that  matter,  the  Roman  memories  of  the  first 
vicar  of  Jesus  Christ  were  yet  numerous  enough  and 
attached  to  fixed  objects  and  localities.  There  was 
the  four-square  dungeon  of  the  Mamertine;  there 
was  the  house  of  Pudens  where  Peter  gathered  the 
Christian  people;   there  was  yet  in  use  the  wooden 


IN  THE  TIME  OF  DOMITIAN,  99 

altar  of  the  apostle^  now  at  the  Lateran ;  there  were 
the  localities  of  '^Domine;  quo  vadis/'  and  the  ^^Fas- 
ciola/'  or  bandage;  there  was  the  house  of  Aquila 
and  Priscilla,  now  Santa  Prisca;  there  was  Peter^s 
ancient  place  of  baptizing  ^'ad  Nymphas/^  happily 
rediscovered  in  the  Ostrian  cemetery.  The  house  of 
that  other  Clement,  the  martyr-consul,  must  have 
been  yet  a  meeting-place  of  the  Christians,  whose 
younger  adepts  already  began  to  affect  the  name  of 
Peter  in  baptism.  Other  httle  churches  were  siorely 
in  the  houses  of  the  mysterious  LuciQa  and  the  an- 
cestors of  St.  Cecilia;  in  the  house  of  the  greatest  of 
the  Roman  nobles,  Manius  AciUus  Glabrio;  and  in 
the  houses  of  others  who  had  also  fallen  a  prey  to 
the  rapacity  or  suspicions  of  the  persecutor  Domi- 
tian.  The  very  old  Catacomb  of  Priscilla,  we  know, 
has  held  the  proofs  of  this  fact  until  the  present  day. 
It  was  in  the  days  of  Clement  that  the  city  was 
finally  made  a  thing  of  perfect  beauty,  and  stood 
shining  in  her  dress  of  precious  marbles,  intoxicating 
from  afar  all  hearts  and  inflaming  all  imaginations 
with  the  tales  that  rumor  spread  abroad,  though 
helpless  to  equal  the  reality.  Men  pored  over  the 
pages  of  past  history,  and  examined  the  constitu- 
tions and  policies  of  all  former  states,  only  to  pro- 
claim that  now  at  last  the  flood  of  change  was  fixed; 
now  at  last  an  abiding  city  had  been  built — the 


100  A   BISHOP  OF  ROME 

Lucky,  the  Happy,  the  Eternal,  the  Golden  Queen 
seated  upon  her  Seven  Hills. 

And  yet,  0  Root  of  Illusion  that  nothing  can  sear 
in  the  heart  of  man!  in  that  hour  her  fate  was  sealed. 
Strange  quiverings  of  prophecy  were  even  then 
shooting  through  her  mighty  frame,  as  when  Ti- 
berius, worn  with  his  exertions,  pointed  to  the  teem- 
ing North  and  bade  the  Senate  make  provision  be- 
times. Something,  too,  seems  to  have  moved  the  sad 
old  man  to  call  upon  Christ;  for  respectable  tradi- 
tion has  it  that  he  wanted  Him  put  among  the  gods 
of  Rome,  but  the  Senate  feared  His  infinite  charm. 
Nevertheless,  this  despised  Christ  was  to  be  the  final 
conqueror  of  the  Senate  and  the  city  and  their  raging 
enemies  beyond  the  Rhine  and  the  Danube  I 

Claudius  and  Fortunatus  and  Bito,  as  they  passed 
out  the  Appian  Gate  on  their  way  to  Brundusium  to 
take  ship  for  Greece,  bore  in  the  epistle  of  Clement  a 
spiritual  djmamite  that  shook  irreparably  the  only 
solid  foundation  of  any  society — the  hearts  of  its 
members.  Here  were  the  best  elements  of  Judaism 
and  the  loving  reverence  of  the  Law  allied  to  those 
new  things  which  Jesus  had  brought — a  divine  per- 
fection of  both,  and  an  extension  of  the  same  to  all 
mankind.  But  these  new  things  were  now  set  forth 
in  a  language  that  Greek  and  Roman  could  under- 
stand, with  happy  borrowings  from  their  philosophy 


IN  THE  TIME  OF  DOMITIAN.  101 

and  literature  and  customs,  and  even  their  cherished 
fables;  the  whole  moulded  by  a  hand  of  genius  into 
unity  and  infused .  with  the  purest  spirit  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

For  centuries  this  letter  of  a  Bishop  of  Rome  was 
read  regularly  in  the  Church  of  Corinth,  and  the  influ- 
ence on  the  early  Christian  world  of  this  majestic 
Roman  document  cannot  be  overestimated.  In  it 
Peter  and  Paul  lived  on,  speaking  and  acting  in  each 
successor.  Through  it,  more  than  through  any  other 
early  document,  the  note  and  criterion  of  "aposto- 
Hcity  "  were  enforced  upon  the  churches.  The  Church 
of  Rome  has  many  titles  to  the  gratitude  of  mankind, 
but  none  older  or  more  venerable  than  this  first 
authoritative  interpretation  of  the  constitution  of 
the  Catholic  Church;  all  the  more  remarkable  as  her 
decision  was  unasked  for,  and  the  beloved  disciple 
was  still  living  and  founding  churches  in  Asia  Minor. 


THE  CHEISTIAN  MARTYES  OF  LYONS  AND 
VIENNE  (A.D.  177): 

Many  a  reader  of  these  pages  has  stood  upon  the 
hill  of  Fourvi^res  at  Lyons  and  gazed  from  the  plat- 
form of  the  great  modern  shrine  of  Our  Lady  upon 
the  mighty  city  that  spreads  away  beneath  her  lov- 
ing gaze.  Long  the  centre  of  the  silk  industries  of 
France,  the  huge  town  is  yet  one  of  the  world's  great 
markets;  and  its  favored  position  at  the  meeting  of 
the  waters  of  the  Saone  and  the  Rhone  assures  for 
an  illimitable  future  its  ancient  coign  of  vantage. 
In  the  Middle  Ages  Lyons  was  an  outpost  of  Ger- 
many; more  than  once  it  hung  on  slight  contingen- 
cies that  this  heart  of  uncertain  and  shifting  Bur- 
gundy should  be  finally  Teutonic.  A  General  Coun- 
cil was  held  there  in  1245,  at  which  the  great  canon- 
ist Innocent  IV.  excommunicated  the  second  Fred- 
eric, after  a  famous  discourse  on  the  five  sorrows  of 
his  own  soul  and  the  five  wounds  of  the  Church. 

We  are  not  concerned  here  with  the  mediaeval 
fimction  of  this  splendid  city  as  a  factor  in  the  poli- 

103 


104     THE  MARTYRS  OF  LYONS  AND  VIENNE. 

tics  and  religion  of  central  Europe,  in  the  gathering 
and  distributing  of  the  wares  and  manufactures  of 
the  East  and  the  West,  in  the  transmission  and  modi- 
fication of  institutions  from  Roman  to  German  Hfe, 
and  vice  versa.  A  history  of  Lyons  would  be  a  his- 
tory of  the  marvellous  smelting  of  barbarism  and 
antique  civiHzation  in  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries, 
such  as  the  contemporary  Gregory  of  Tours  has  out- 
lined in  his  inimitably  fresh  and  truthful  book. 

But  German  barbarism  was  still  a  remote  threat  in 
the  middle  of  the  second  century  after  Christ.  The 
philosophers  of  Rome,  her  captains  and  statesmen 
and  priests,  were  more  concerned  about  the  spread 
along  the  river  of  the  new  doctrines  of  a  despised 
Jew  named  Jesus  the  Christ.  Yearly  new  commu- 
nities cropped  up  to  whom  His  ''Name"  was  the 
symbol  of  a  new  fife  and  to  whom  His  ''Work "  was 
the  sole  ideal  worthy  of  the  human  heart.  The  tem- 
ples were  being  abandoned,  the  sacrifices  neglected, 
and  the  numerous  trades  that  prospered  by  both 
began  to  suffer.  A  hundred  vices,  grown  venerable 
by  toleration,  scented  from  afar  their  conqueror  and 
prepared  for  resistance.  The  genial  worsliip  of 
Greece,  the  grave  and  ancient  rites  of  Rome  herself, 
the  fantastic  mummeries  of  the  Orient,  made  com- 
mon cause  against  the  newcomer.  Year  after  year 
complaints  went  up  to  the  venerable  senate,  peti- 


THE  MARTYRS  OF  LYONS  AND  VIENNE.     105 

tions  were  sent  to  the  emperor,  the  mihtary  authori- 
ties were  besought,  the  lawyers  rummaged  the  deci- 
sions and  opinions  of  their  predecessors,  in  order  to 
cast  out  the  adepts  of  the  new  religion,  who  boldly 
confessed  themselves  by  the  pecuhar  name  of  Chris- 
tians. The  growing  evils  of  Roman  society  were 
laid  at  their  door,  and  the  wisest  complained 

"  That  Heaven  rains  plagues  upon  the  guilty  earthj; 
That  Pestilence  is  let  loose,  and  Famine  stalks 
O'er  kingdoms,  withering  them  to  barrenness; 
That  reeling  cities  shake  and  the  swoln  seas 
Engulf  our  navies,  or  with  sudden  inroad 
Level  our  strong-wall'd  ports." 

It  was  in  vain  that  the  disciples  of  Jesus  bade  men 
look  into  their  upright  and  blameless  lives;  that 
they  abstained  from  sedition  and  intrigue;  that  they 
left  uncared  for  no  sorrow  or  misery  of  their  own  and 
their  pagan  neighbors;  that  they  surpassed  the 
classic  ideals  of  Pythagoras  and  Plato  and  Seneca; 
that  their  mutual  affection  astounded  those  world- 
worn  and  life-weary  men  of  the  Empire  who  had  lost 
all  respect  for  humanity.  They  were,  indeed,  the 
soul  of  that  ancient  society,  even  then  stricken  to 
death;  though  as  yet  it  heard  not,  or  heeded  not,  the 
dread  response  of  the  decree  of  fate.  More  than  a 
century  must  elapse  before  this  primary  truth  could 
be  accepted  by  the  proud  rulers  of  the  world;  just 
now  the  Christians  were  a  cancer  to  be  cut  out  or 


106     THE  MARTYRS  OF  LYONS  AND  VIENNE. 

burned  out  from  the  body  politic  threatened  by 
them  with  corruption  and  ruin. 

And  so  it  was  a  right  glad  message  of  permission 
and  encouragement  that  Marcus  Aurelius  (a.d.  161- 
180)  sent  across  the  sea,  via  Marseilles,  to  the  men  of 
Lyons  that  they  should  stamp  out  the  Christian 
impiety  and  atheism.  He  had  just  finished  his  great 
campaign  against  the  German  Quadi,  during  which 
the  white  oxen  of  Rome,  so  ran  the  epigram,  had 
sent  him  word  that  they  feared  his  victory,  for  on 
his  triumphal  return  they  would  of  a  certainty  be 
all  immolated  by  him.  Perhaps  he  had  already  put 
down  in  his  '^ Meditations"  that  the  Christians  were 
guilty  of  an  immoral  stubbornness  against  the  su- 
premacy of  the  state;  though  that  did  not  prevent 
him  from  calhng  on  their  God  for  water  in  a  hopeless 
drouth,  or  from  summoning  a  Christian  bishop  to 
heal  an  imperial  princess.  Falsehood  has  ever  a 
special  right  to  inconsistency. 

For  several  reasons  the  original  records  of  the 
Christian  persecutions  have  not  come  down  to  us, 
except  in  a  few  cases,  and  these  often  in  fragmentary 
or  imperfect  shape.  Of  some  no  account  was  kept, 
or  the  brief  and  hurried  notes  of  the  appointed  scribe 
were  lost.  It  was  at  best  a  poor  humble  domestic 
hterature,  subject  to  the  rabid  violence  of  the  mob, 
even  if  it  could  escape  the  natural  enemies  of  all 


THE  MARTYRS  OF  LYONS  AND  VIENNE.     107 

writing — timC;  the  moth,  fire,  water,  removal,  ig- 
norance. Of  the  numberless  victims  who  died  in  the 
Colosseum  or  the  Circus  Maximus  for  Hberty  of  con- 
science only  a  few  are  known  to  us  by  name,  and  of 
them  only  a  few  are  better  known  by  their  genuine 
acts.  The  persecution  of  Diocletian  was  particu- 
larly the  cause  of  the  disappearance  of  most  of  the 
ancient  Christian  writings.  During  the  last  years  of 
the  third  and  the  first  of  the  fourth  century  many  of 
them  were  handed  over  to  the  imperial  police,  to  pro- 
tect the  Holy  Scriptures,  whose  superior  authority 
and  dignity  these  rude  mercenaries  were  usually 
unable  to  understand. 

There  is,  therefore,  a  certain  pathos  about  all  the 
genuine  acts  of  the  early  Christian  martyrs;  but 
about  the  victims  of  the  persecution  at  Lyons  there 
is  something  more — the  imstinted  admiration  of  the 
entire  Church  then  and  afterward;  a  savor  of  simple 
joy  and  childlike  eagerness  to  be  through  with  the 
dread  experience  and  to  rest  in  the  bosom  of  the 
Lord;  an  extraordinary  calm  of  spirit;  an  absence 
of  rancor  against  their  tormentors;  and  an  ele- 
vation of  soul  that  place  them  on  a  level  with  the 
noblest  witnesses  who  ever  laid  down  their  lives 
for  the  love  of  Jesus.  Their  story  is  told  by  one 
of  themselves,  in  a  letter  to  the  Churches  of  Asia 
Minor,  as  the  inscription  shows : 


108     THE  MARTYRS  OF  LYONS  AND  VIENNE. 

''The  servants  of  Christ  who  sojourn  in  Vienna 
and  Lugdunum  of  Galha,  to  the  Brethren  through- 
out Asia  and  Phrygia  who  hold  the  same  faith  and 
hope  with  us  of  redemption,  peace,  and  grace  and 
glory  from  God  the  Father  and  Christ  Jesus  our 
Lord/' 

It  would  have  entirely  perished,  like  so  many 
other  Christian  documents  of  the  time  before  Con- 
stantine,  had  not  the  great  historian  Eusebius  de- 
cided to  give  large  excerpts  from  it  in  the  fifth  book 
of  his  history.  Its  opening  paragraph  refers  to  the 
Ugly  mutterings  before  the  storm — ^'Hhe  variety 
of  sufferings  endured  by  the  blessed  martyrs,  which 
we  are  neither  able  to  state  with  accuracy  nor  in- 
deed is  it  possible  for  them  to  be  embraced  in  writ- 
ing.'^  They  were  excluded  from  all  public  places — 
the  baths  and  markets  and  streets;  yet  the  grace  of 
God  acted  as  their  general,  and  ranged  them  in 
strong  battle-array  against  the  Evil  One,  and  en- 
abled them  to  bear  all  reproaches,  to  make  light  of 
all  oppression,  and  to  show  ''that  the  sufferings  of 
the  present  time  are  not  to  be  compared  with  the 
glory  that  shall  be  revealed  in  us/' 

"First,  they  nobly  endured  all  that  had  to  be 
borne  at  the  hands  of  the  mob  and  rabble;  they 
were  hooted,  assaulted,  pulled  about,  plundered, 
stoned,    and    forced    to    barricade    themselves   in; 


THE  MARTYRS  OF  LYONS  AND  VIENNE,     109 

in  fact,  they  suffered  every  indignity  which  an 
infuriated  mob  is  accustomed  to  inflict  upon  its 
supposed  adversaries  and  foes.  At  length,  being 
brought  into  the  forum  by  the  chiliarch  and  chief 
men  of  the  city,  they  were  examined  in  the  presence 
of  the  whole  multitude;  and  having  confessed 
[their  Christianity],  were  put  into  prison  to  await 
the  arrival  of  the  governor.'' 

One  Vettius  Epagathus,  a  most  upright  citizen, 
protested  in  vain  that  there  was  nothing  impious 
or  sacrilegious  among  the  Christians — precisely 
what  the  two  deaconesses  had  told  Pliny  in  Bithy- 
nia  some  sixty-five  years  before.  He  was  asked 
from  the  judgment-seat  if  he,  too,  was  a  Christian; 
and  on  confessing  it,  was  ranged  ''in  the  order  of 
the  martyrs, '^  while  the  mob  jeered  at  him  as  the 
lawyer  of  the  Christians.  The  writer  of  the  letter 
saw  the  holy  martyr  before  him  as  he  wrote;  for 
he  exclaims  that  ''he  was  and  is  a  genuine  disciple 
of  the  Christ,  following  the  Lamb  whithersoever 
He  goeth.''  Then  follows  an  account  of  the  pre- 
liminary examination,  always  a  moment  of  dread 
for  the  bishop  and  the  priests  and  deacons  who 
had  been  day  and  night  laboring  with  the  chosen 
victims,  that  no  fear  or  pusillanimity  might  seize 
them  at  the  last  moment. 

"Thereupon  the  rest  were  scrutinized,   and  the 


110     THE  MARTYRS  OF  LYONS  AND  VIENNE. 

first  witnesses  were  forward  and  ready,  who  with 
all  eagerness  completed  the  confession  of  their 
witness.  Likewise  the  unready  and  untrained 
were  made  manifest;  moreover,  also  the  weak  who 
were  unable  to  bear  the  strain  of  a  great  contest. 
Of  these  about  ten  miscarried,  who  both  caused  us 
great  grief  and  sorrow  unmeasured,  and  also  hin- 
dered the  eagerness  of  the  others  who  were  imar- 
rested,  and  who,  although  suffering  all  terrors,  were 
nevertheless  constantly  present  with  the  confessors 
and  would  not  leave  them.  Then,  indeed,  were  we 
all  greatly  anxious,  through  uncertainty  as  to  their 
confession, — not  dreading  the  punishments  to  be 
endured,  but  fixing  our  gaze  on  the  end,  and  fearing 
lest  any  might  fall  away.  Each  day,  however, 
those  who  were  worthy  were  arrested  and  filled  up 
the  others^  places;  so  that  there  were  gathered 
together  from  the  two  Churches  all  the  zealous  ones 
through  whose  instrumentahty  especially  our  affairs 
had  been  estabhshed.  They  arrested  also  certain 
heathen  domestic  slaves  of  ours, — for  the  governor 
ordered  that  we  should  all  be  examined  in  public; 
and  these  falling  into  a  plot  of  Satan,  and  fearing  the 
tortures  which  they  saw  the  saints  suffering,  on 
being  instigated  to  this  course  by  the  soldiers, 
falsely  accused  us  of  Thyestean  banquets  and  GEdi- 
podean  intercourse,  and  of  other  deeds  of  which  it 


THE  MARTYRS  OF  LYONS  AND  VIENNE.     Ill 

is  not  lawful  for  us  either  to  speak  or  think,  nor  even 
to  believe  that  the  like  is  ever  done  amongst  man- 
kind. These  statements  being  reported,  all  were 
infuriated  against  us;  so  that  if  there  were  any  who 
from  ties  of  kinship  had  hitherto  been  lenient, 
even  these  were  now  greatly  enraged  and  mad  with 
anger  against  us.  Then  that  was  fulfilled  which 
was  spoken  by  Our  Lord:  fThe  hour  cometh  that 
whosoever  killeth  you  will  think  that  he  doeth  a 
service  to  God.'  ^'    [St.  John  xvi.  2.] 

In  the  long  struggle  that  now  followed  between 
physical  force  and  moral  courage  there  come  to 
Hght  all  the  distinctive  features  of  Christian  martyr- 
dom from  Nero  to  Diocletian.  Had  we  only  this 
touching  story,  we  should  know  in  a  general  way 
the  ordinary  course  of  procedure  against  the 
Christians.  The  story  of  the  sufferings  of  Sanctus 
can  never  be  read  with  dry  eyes.  When  asked  his 
name,  his  race,  his  city,  his  condition,  whether  slave 
or  free,  he  replied  in  Latin:  ^'I  am  a  Christian." 
As  the  letter  is  written  in  Greek  to  Greek-speak- 
ing Christians,  there  is  here  an  archaic  souvenir  of 
the  days  of  union  between  Latins  and  Greeks  ere 
wealth  and  success  and  the  goods  and  ideas  of 
this  world  finally  sundered  the  holy  bond  of  char- 
ity between  them.  Very  lovely  also  is  the  narra- 
tive of  the  bravery  of  Biblias,  a  woman  who  had 


112     THE  MARTYRS  OF  LYONS  AND  VIENNE, 

fallen  away  at  the  first  examination  before  the 
magistrate,  but  came  forward  later  on,  and  bore 
away  with  glory  the  palm  of  martyrdom. 

The  anonymous  writer  reaches  the  limit  of  his 
inspiration  in  the  Hnes  that  he  devotes  to  the  little 
slave  Blandina  and  her  unexampled  courage  and 
perseverance.  Perhaps  the  most  earnest  and 
truthful  phrases  that  ever  fell  from  the  lips  of  a  far 
different  writer,  Ernest  Renari,  are  those  in  which 
he  describes  Blandina  as  the  highest  type  of  those 
Christian  women  who  freed  their  sex  from  its  moral 
slavery  by  such  exhibitions  of  an  ineradicable 
purpose  to  return  no  more  to  the  abyss  that  they 
had  left  behind.  Blandina  looked  to  the  great  pa- 
gan mob  of  Lyonese  that  summer  day  as  indeed 
something  ''worthless  and  uncomely  and  despica- 
ble.'' Yet;  says  the  writer  of  this  superb  tragedy, 
she  was  deemed  worthy  of  great  glory  by  God  be- 
cause of  her  enduring  love  for  Him. 

"For  while  we  were  all  afraid  for  her,  and  her 
earthly  mistress,  who  was  herself  also  one  of  the 
witnessing  combatants,  dreaded  lest  she  should 
be  unable  through  bodily  weakness  boldly  to 
make  confession,  Blandina  was  filled  with  such 
power  that  she  was  set  free  from  and  contrasted 
with  those  who  tortured  her  with  every  kind  of 
torture   in   turn   from   morning   to   evening;    and 


THE  MARTYRS  OF  LYONS  AND  VIENNE.     113 

who  confessed  that  they  were  conquered,  since  they 
had  nothing  left  which  they  could  any  longer  do 
to  her;  and  that  they  marvelled  at  breath  re- 
maining in  her  when  her  whole  body  was  lacer- 
ated and  laid  open,  testifying  that  one  of  the  tor- 
tures by  itself  was  sufficient  to  end  hfe,  let  alone 
so  many  and  such  great  ones.  But  the  blessed 
woman,  Hke  a  noble  athlete,  gained  her  strength 
by  her  confession,  finding  refreshment  and  free- 
dom from  pain  in  saying,  ^I  am  a  Christian/  and 
'We  do  nothing  vile/  " 

These  bloody  scenes  had  now  lasted  several 
days.  The  aged  Bishop  Pothinus,  over  ninety  years 
of  age,  had  died  in  prison  of  the  abuses  received. 
A  great  band  of  holy  witnesses  had  been  despatched 
with  every  refinement  of  cruelty.  The  writer, 
transfiguring  the  language  of  the  circus,  says  they 
were  hke  a  wreath  of  many-colored  flowers  that 
was  offered  to  the  Father  by  these  noble  athletes, 
in  the  hope  of  receiving  at  His  hand  the  splendid 
wreath  of  incorruption.  Alexander  the  physician, 
from  Phrygia,  died  a  hero's  death,  after  he  had 
for  several  days  encouraged  by  word  and  look  these 
pioneers  of  the  Christian  state.  Attains,  a  man  of 
repute  in  the  city,  had  also  died  in  the  most  pain- 
ful torments.  After  having  been  paraded  about 
the  arena  with  a  placard  on  his  breast  bearing  the 


114     THE  MARTYRS  OF  LYONS  AND  VIENNE. 

words,  ^'This  is  Attalus  the  Christian/'  he  had  been 
remanded  to  prison,  only  to  be  brought  out  on  an- 
other day,  placed  upon  an  iron  chair  and  roasted 
to  death.  As  the  hot  odor  from  his  poor  body 
was  borne  aloft,  he  said  to  the  crowd,  in  Latin: 
''Lo,  tliis  it  is  to  eat  men,  and  you  are  doing  it; 
we  neither  eat  men  nor  practise  any  wickedness." 
The  writer  here  returns  to  the  true  leader  of  this 
extraordinary  band  of  men  and  women  before  whom 
that  day  capitulated  unconsciously  the  power  that 
deemed  itself  the  Queen  of  the  World. 

"Finally,  on  the  last  day  of  the  gladiatorial 
games,  Blandina  was  again  brought  forward  with 
a  lad  of  about  fifteen,  named  PonticuSc  These 
two  had  been  brought  in  each  day  to  witness  the 
punishment  of  the  others,  and  had  been  pressed 
to  swear  by  the  idols.  And  because  they  remained 
constant  and  set  them  at  naught,  the  populace 
grew  furious,  so  that  they  respected  neither  the 
youth  of  the  boy  nor  the  sex  of  the  woman;  but 
they  made  them  pass  through  every  form  of  ter- 
rible suffering,  and  through  the  whole  round  of 
punishments,  urging  them  to  swear  after  each 
one;  but  they  were  unable  to  effect  this.  For 
Ponticus,  excited  to  zeal  by  his  sister,  so  that  even 
the  heathen  saw  that  it  was  she  who  encouraged 
and  strengthened  him,  yielded  up  his  spirit  after 


THE  MARTYRS  OF  LYONS  AND  VIENNE.     115 

nobly  enduring  every  punishment.  And  the  blessed 
Blandina,  last  of  all,  like  a  noble  mother  who  had 
excited  her  children  to  zeal  and  sent  them  for- 
ward as  conquerors  to  the  King,  recapitulated  in 
herself  all  the  conflicts  of  her  children  and  hast- 
ened to  them;  rejoicing  and  exulting  in  her  death 
like  one  invited  to  a  bridal  feast  rather  than  thrown 
to  the  beasts.  For  after  the  scourging,  after  the 
beasts,  after  the  frying,  she  was  at  last  enclosed  in 
a  net  and  exposed  to  a  bull;  and  having  been  many 
times  tossed  by  the  beast,  and  being  no  longer  sen- 
sible of  her  sufferings  on  accoimt  of  her  hope  and 
firm  hold  on  the  things  entrusted  to  her  and  her 
converse  with  Christ,  she  also  was  sacrificed;  even 
the  heathen  themselves  confessing  that  never  yet 
amongst  them  had  a  woman  suffered  such  manifold 
and  great  tortures." 

We  are  not  told  by  the  writer  of  the  letter  what 
the  Christians  did  when  these  dread  scenes  were 
over.  But  we  know  otherwise  that  they  were  wont 
to  meet  frequently  and  recite  before  one  another 
these  tales  of  heroism,  that  acted  as  whips  and  spurs 
for  the  undecimated  remainder.  Without  bitter- 
ness they  listened  to  these  simple  but  burning 
paragraphs  ere  they  were  folded  and  sealed,  and 
delivered,  with  his  letters  of  credit,  to  the  mes- 
senger who  should  bear  them  across  the  Mediter- 


116     THE  MARTYRS  OF  LYONS  AND  VIENNE. 

ranean  to  the  high  tablelands  of  Phrygia,  where 
the  face  of  Paul  was  yet  vividly  clear  to  the  com- 
munities he  had  established,  and  where  a  stern  and 
solemn  fervor  of  faith  and  hope  still  possessed  the 
souls  of  a  large  percentage  of  the  native  popula- 
tion. As  he  descended  the  hill  of  Fourvieres  the 
messenger-deacon  would  no  doubt  hear  every  dying 
echo  of  those  victory-psalms  that  Milman  has  so 
touchingly  paraphrased  in  that  death-chant  of 
Margerita  which  fittingly  closes  his  noble  poem  on 
"  The  Martyrs  of  Antioch  " : 
*''  Sing  to  the  Lord!  let  harp  and  lute  and  voice 

Up  to  the  expanding  gates  of  heaven  rejoice, 

While  the  bright  martyrs  to  their  rest  are  borneg 

Sing  to  the  Lord!  their  blood-stain' d  course  is  run, 

And  every  head  its  diadem  hath  won, 
Rich  as  the  purple  of  the  summer  morn ; 

Sing  the  triumphant  champions  of  their  God, 

While  burn  their  mounting  feet  along  their  skyward  road! 

"  Sing  to  the  Lord!  for  her  in  Beauty's  prime 
Snatched  from  this  wintry  earth's  ungenial  clime, 

In  the  eternal  spring  of  paradise  to  bloom ; 
For  her  the  world  displayed  its  brightest  treasure, 
And  the  airs  panted  with  the  songs  of  pleasure. 

Before  earth's  throne  she  chose  the  lowly  tomb, 
The  vale  of  tears  with  willing  footsteps  trod, 
Bearing  her  cross  with  Thee,  Incarnate  Son  of  God. 

"  Sing  to  the  Lord !  it  is  not  shed  in  vain. 

The  blood  of  martyrs.     From  its  freshening  rain 

High  springs  the  Church  like  some  fount-shadowing  palm'; 
The  nations  crowd  beneath  its  branching  shade ; 
Of  its  green  leaves  are  kingly  diadems  made ; 

And  wrapt  within  its  deep  embosoming  calm 
Earth  sinks  to  slumber  like  the  breathless  deep, 
And  war's  tempestuous  vultures  fold  their  wings  and  sleep. 


THE  MARTYRS  OF  LYONS  AND  VIENNE.     117 

*'  Sing  to  the  Lord!  no  more  the  angels  fly- 
Far  in  the  bosom  of  the  stainless  sky 

The  sound  of  fierce,  licentious  sacrifice. 
From  shrined  alcove  and  stately  pedestal 
The  marble  gods  in  cumbrous  ruin  fall ; 

Headless  in  dust  the  awe  of  nations  lies, 
Jove's  thunder  crumbles  in  his  mouldering  hand, 
And  mute  as  sepulchres  the  hymnless  temples  stand." 

The  bodies  of  the  martyrs  were  exposed  for  six 
days  in  the  arena;  then  they  were  burned  and  re- 
duced to  ashes  by  the  pagans,  and  the  ashes  were 
cast  into  the  Rhone  that  flowed  close  by.  It  was 
thought  thereby  to  conquer  the  Christian  God  and 
to  deprive  the  martyrs  of  their  boasted  new  birth, 
or  the  resurrection.  The  pagans  spread  it  about 
that  thus 'Hhey  would  have  no  hope  of  a  resur- 
rection, through  trusting  in  which  they  bring  in  to 
us  a  foreign  and  strange  religion,  and  despise  terri- 
ble sufferings,  and  are  willing  with  joy  to  die.  Now 
let  us  see  whether  they  will  rise  again,  and  if  their 
God  is  able  to  succor  them  and  rescue  them  out  of 
our  hands."  Similar  language  had  been  used 
twenty  years  before  at  Smyrna  to  the  proconsul 
Arrius  Antoninus,  after  the  execution  at  the  stake  of 
the  blessed  Polycarp  of  Smyrna,  the  disciple  of  St. 
John.  We  are  standing,  indeed,  at  the  outer  jedge 
of  the  apostolic  times. 

It  was  in  the  latter  part  of  July  and  the  earlier 
days  of  August  that  these  events  took  place,  very 


118     THE  MARTYRS  OF  LYONS  AND  VIENNE. 

probably  in  the  year  a.d.  177.  By  ancient  custom 
the  different  provinces  of  Gaul  met  annually  at  this 
date  to  consult  on  provincial  business,  and  to  wor- 
ship at  the  shrine  of  Rome  and  Augustus.  The 
great  altar  of  the  latter,  a  shining  marble  cube  above 
a  mound  of  green  turf,  rose  near  the  junction  of  the 
rivers,  and  was  dominated  by  a  huge  statue  of  Augus- 
tus, around  which  were  disposed  sixty  smaller  stat- 
ues symbohcal  of  the  sixty  '' cities"  of  Gaul — or, 
rather,  of  the  sixty  Keltic  clan-tribes  to  whom  these 
'' cities"  were  their  ancient  seats  of  power.  On  that 
day  the  martyrs  could  hear  not  only  Greek  and 
Latin  but  genuine  Keltic  accents  that  would  have 
been  understood  in  Ireland  or  Britain.  Perhaps,  for 
purposes  of  barter  or  commerce,  some  woad-painted 
Britons  or  Picts,  some  gigantic,  long-haired,  ruddy- 
featured  Scoti  from  Ireland  were  there.  Nay,  it  is 
not  impossible  that  some  Christian  Irish  would  have 
been  present;  a  few  years  later  St.  Irenseus,  the 
successor  of  the  martyred  Pothinus  in  the  see  of 
Lyons,  could  T\Tite  that  the  Gospel  had  made  its  way 
among  the  Kelts,  who  held  it  in  reverence  written 
on  their  hearts  without  paper  or  ink — ^i.e.,  by  oral 
preaching. 

Among  such  Kelts  may  have  been  some  pre- 
Patrician  Irish  Christians.  The  laws  of  Rome  were 
yet  translated  into  Keltic  for  the  inhabitants  of 


THE  MARTYRS  OF  LYONS  AND  VIENNE.     119 

Gaul,  and  all  memories  of  Druid  lore  and  magic  had 
not  perished.  Curious  old  Keltic  gods  stood  about 
the  amphitheatre  while  the  blood  of  these  Christians 
was  flowing  Uke  water;  the  Romanized  grandchildren 
of  exiled  Druids  could  compare  with  their  own  huge 
wicker  cages  of  human  victims  this  hecatomb  of 
Greeks  and  Latins  which  outrivalled  the  archaic 
rites  of  blood  that  Caesar  had  suppressed  on  this  very- 
soil .  Indeed,  it  is  far  from  improbable  that  among 
the  forty-eight  whom  ancient  tradition  declares  to 
have  died  for  Christ  on  that  occasion  were  some 
genuine  Kelts  either  from  the  continent  or  the  isl- 
ands. The  well-known  ardor  and  intelligence  of 
the  race  would  have  easily  led  them  into  the  society 
of  the  Lamb;  and  their  equally  well-known  con- 
tempt of  death  and  rooted  belief  in  immortality 
would  only  confirm  their  presence  among  these  first- 
fruits  in  Jesus  of  the  Church  of  Gaul.  Be  this  as 
it  may,  all  Christendom  has  ever  held  in  loving 
veneration  these  pioneers  of  the  new  religion  along 
the  far-flung  fine  of  its  proseljrtism;  and  cherishes 
yet,  after  seventeen  centuries,  the  admirable  proems 
verbal  of  their  martyrdom — a  statement  which  for 
simpUcity,  feeUng,  and  classic  picturesqueness  could 
not  be  surpassed  by  any  modern  account  of  similar 
proceedings  in  the  Middle  Kingdom. 


SLAVERY  AND  FREE  LABOR  IN  PAGAN 
ROME. 

I. 

How  often  do  we  reflect  on  the  horrors  of  the  old 
pagan  social  order!  Its  overthrow  was  the  greatest 
boon  ever  conferred  upon  the  human  race.  It  was 
so  anti-natural  and  anti-social  that  it  hemmed  and 
stifled  every  activity  of  the  ordinary  individual,  re- 
duced him  to  the  condition  of  a  helpless  cog  or 
wheel  in  the  general  social  mechanism,  and  made 
the  few  everywhere  and  in  all  things  the  bene- 
ficiaries of  the  lives,  the  toil,  the  very  being  of  the 
many.  The  divine  cry  of  Jesus,  Misereor  super  tur- 
ham,  "I  have  pity  on  the  multitude,"  wrung  from 
His  lips  by  the  contemplation  of  common  human 
suffering,  was  more  than  justified  by  the  actual 
conditions  of  social  fife  that  then  obtained  through- 
out the  Roman  Empire,  and  seemed  destined  rather 
to  grow  worse  than  better  with  the  lapse  of  time. 

The  true  social  canker  of  antiquity  was  the  condi- 

121 


122  SLAVERY  AND  FREE  LABOR  IN  PAGAN  ROME. 

tion  of  the  laboring  man,  whether  slave  or  free. 
It  had  come  about  that  labor  had  passed  into  the 
control  of  the  most  oppressive  of  all  trusts — the 
slavery-trust,  by  which  the  productive,  distributive, 
and  consumptive  powers  of  all  ancient  society  were 
regulated  with  the  greatest  possible  injustice  to  its 
unfortunate  victims  and  the  no  less  moral  detriment 
of  the  masters. 

The  slave  was  the  machine  of  pagan  society.  Its 
most  learned  scholar,  Varro,  called  him  '^a  speak- 
ing instrument."  One  half  of  the  Grseco-Roman 
population  was  enslaved,  and  of  the  other  half  fully 
one  quarter  was  made  up  of  the  poor  free  proletariat, 
too  proud  to  work,  if  it  could  find  work,  yet  com- 
pulsorily  idle  through  the  skilful  organization  of  the 
vast  armies  of  slaves  by  their  shrewd  Roman  mas- 
ters. "Armies"  is  not  too  big  a  word.  When  a 
quasi-ruined  man  like  C.  Csecilius  Isidorus  died,  he 
could  leave  among  his  assets  4116  slaves.  He  was 
a  wretchedly  poor  man  who  owned  only  one  or  two 
slaves.  The  poet  Horace  had  only  three  to  wait  on 
him  at  the  table,  and  only  nine  to  look  after  his  little 
Sabine  viUa.  Even  in  the  Christian  times  of  St. 
John  Chrysostom  the  average  rich  man  would  own 
from  one  thousand  to  twelve  hundred  slaves.  In 
his  "Banquet  of  Trimalchio"  the  poet  Petronius 
shows  us  the  Roman  master  listening  to  the  daily 


SLAVERY  AND  FREE  LABOR  IN  PAGAN  ROME.  123 

register  of  slave  births  on  his  estates — e.g.,  ''thirty 
boys,  forty  girls." 

Of  course  the  actual  number  of  slaves  told  off  for 
.  purely  domestic  purposes  or  for  the  uses  of  luxury 
was  large,  but  in  relation  to  their  multitude  was 
smaW,  hence  the  question  of  their  employment 
was  a  serious  one.  In  spite  of  himself  the  Roman 
became  a  manufacturer.  He  had  always  a  turn  for 
business,  and  every  Roman  child  was  taught  the 
sense  and  use  of  figures  from  its  infancy,  was  accus- 
tomed to  the  keeping  of  household  accoimts,  and  to 
the  balancing  of  debit  and  credit  columns.  It  was  a 
nation  of  peasants  and  gardeners  that  had  con- 
quered the  world,  hence  their  pecuhar  name  for  aU 
territory  outside  of  their  own  little  city  and  sub- 
urbs— ^''prsedium  populi  Romani,"  the  farm  of  the 
Roman  people.  Their  slaves  were  set  to  work  at 
every  possible  occupation;  they  were  weavers  and 
bakers,  tailors  and  carpenters.  They  stored  the 
native  and  foreign  wheat  in  granaries,  and  the  oil  in 
taU  earthen  vases  that  they  afterwards  piled  moun- 
tain-high, outside  the  walls.  Storehouses  of  ready- 
made  clotliing,  of  every  value,  were  filled  by  their 
handiwork.  When  a  capital  of  five  hundred  dol- 
lars warranted  the  keeping  of  one  slave,  and  that 
slave  cost  only  one  hundred  dollars  if  it  were  a  man, 
fifty  if  it  were  a  woman,  what  wonder  that  the  great 


124  SLAVERY  AND  FREE  LABOR  IN  PAGAN  ROME. 

capitalists  who  had  absorbed  the  wealth  of  Greece, 
Asia,  and  Africa  were  able  to  keep  regiments  of  help- 
less men  toiling  forever  at  their  behest ! 

Indeed,  it  was  a  toil  forever!  There  was  no 
limit  of  law  or  custom,  no  certain  hours  of  rest  by 
day  or  night.  As  the  life  of  the  slave  was  preca- 
rious, the  capital,  as  well  as  the  interest  of  his  cost, 
must  be  soon  gotten  out  of  his  carcass  —  he  was 
more  quickly  worn  out  than  a  wheat- vessel  or  one 
of  the  heavy  wagons  that  rolled  daily  over  the  blue 
lava  blocks  of  the  Appia  Nova  or  the  Salaria  Vetus. 
His  labor  was  less  costly  and  more  lucrative  than 
that  of  the  free  man,  for  strikes  were  out  of  the 
question,  and  flight  was  punished  with  excessive 
rigor.  Even  the  surveillance  of  slaves  was  done  by 
other  slaves,  thus  reducing  to  a  minimum  the  ex- 
pense of  the  system,  and  abrogating  all  free  labor 
whatsoever,  even  of  a  clerical  or  administrative 
nature. 

Occasionally  in  the  Roman  inscriptions  or  epi- 
taphs, of  wliich  many  thousands  have  reached  us, 
we  hear  of  corporations  of  workingmen,  their  names 
and  meetings  and  banquets;  but  these  are  most 
hkely  chefs  d'ateliers,  men  who  had  other  slaves 
under  them.  So  httle  account  was  taken  of  the 
slave's  personahty  that  when,  e.g.,  a  bakery  or  a 
purple  factory  was  the  object  of  a  legacy  or  an  in- 


SLAVERY  AND  FREE  LABOR  IN  PAGAN  ROME.  125 

heritance,  the  law  took  it  to  mean  the  slaves  con- 
nected therewith,  just  as  the  furniture  of  a  house 
or  the  implements  of  a  smithy  accompany  it  with- 
out further  ado. 

This  human  machinery,  the  quickest,  most  deli- 
cate, and  most  intelligent  that  was  ever  devised, 
though  not  the  most  durable,  could  be  owned  by 
societies  and  companies,  could  be  exploited  like  any 
of  the  necessaries  of  hfe.  The  slave  could  be  hired 
out  for  a  day  or  a  year,  could  be  sent  to  a  school  of 
law  or  medicine  that  he  might  be  helpful  on  the  dis- 
tant Cappadocian  ranch,  in  the  copper -mines  of 
Palestine  or  the  silver-mines  of  Spain.  Whole  vil- 
lages of  slaves  were  established  in  the  heart  of  im- 
mense latifundia,  that  the  other  thousands  of  slaves 
who  worked  these  vast  wheat  or  corn  lands  might 
not  want  for  any  of  the  advantages  that  could  pro- 
long their  lives  or  keep  them  from  becoming  a 
charge  on  the  owner  or  owners.  We  are  told  by 
Plutarch  that  at  certain  crises  in  the  affairs  of  Rome 
Crassus  bought  up  the  best  lots  all  over  the  city  to 
sell  them  at  an  enormous  advance.  Too  shrewd  to 
build  up  the  territory  at  his  own  risk,  he  let  out 
the  services  of  his  building-trust,  the  five  hundred 
best  carpenters  and  architects  in  the  city. 

Thus  every  branch  of  industry  was  in  the  hands 
of  the  slaves,  and  through  them  a  few  men  reaped 


126  SLAVERY  AND  FREE  LABOR  IN  PAGAN  ROME. 

the  fruit  of  the  toil  of  milHons.  It  is  said  that  six 
men,  in  the  reign  of  Nero,  owned  all  Roman  Africa. 
At  the  same  time,  not  more  than  two  thousand  men 
at  Rome  owned  all  the  property  of  the  civilized 
world  from  the  Rhine  to  the  Euphrates.  What 
wonder  that  when  such  a  plutocrat  died,  the  em- 
peror compelled  him  to  make  the  state  his  heir! 
Not  only  industry,  but  commerce  and  lucrative 
business  of  every  land  were  thus  seized  on.  The 
poor  free  individual  was  shut  out  of  all  concurrence 
except  that  of  vice  and  shame.  If  one  were  to  stand 
on  the  corner  of  any  street  leading  to  the  Forum  and 
look  upon  the  many  trades  and  occupations  that 
made  the  scene  lively,  he  would  behold  only  the 
work  of  slaves.  The  woollens  and  cottons,  the  fin- 
ished garments  in  yonder  bottega  were  the  work  of 
slaves.  The  olive-hued  Syrian  who  sold  them,  the 
tall  and  lanky  Copt  who  kept  the  books,  the  huge 
German  who  rolled  about  the  bales  of  cloth,  were 
slaves.  The  chatty  barber  across  the  street,  full  of 
palatine  gossip  from  liis  brethren  on  the  hill  of 
power,  was  a  child  of  Athens,  and  could  quote  you 
his  Aristophanes  from  beginning  to  end.  That 
blond  money-changer  over  at  the  triumphal  arch, 
with  his  blue  eyes  and  his  thick  shock  of  yellow 
hair,  was  a  Gaul — his  tables  are  up  against  the  sculp- 
tured bodies  of  Dumnorix,  Vercingetorix,  and  Julius 


SLAVERY  AND  FREE  LABOR  IN  PAGAN  ROME.  127 

Civilis.  That  bronzed  and  hardy  seaman,  just 
back  from  Carthage  or  Alexandria,  is  a  Frisian,  or  a 
Venete  from  Brittany,  not  too  discontented  with 
his  office  as  captain  of  a  wheat-fleet.  In  some  way 
ancient  slavery  was  more  tolerable  than  its  modern 
counterpart,  for  all  ran  the  risk  of  falling  into  its 
abyss.  Neither  color  nor  race,  neither  former  dig- 
nity nor  ancestry,  could  effectually  preserve  one 
from  becoming  a  slave.  On  the  other  hand,  it  must 
be  admitted,  the  means  of  escaping  from  it  were 
more  numerous  than  in  modern  slavery.  Especially 
was  this  the  case  with  what  is  known  as  freedmen, 
manumitted  slaves.  Yet  even  they  were  forever 
bound  to  their  former  masters,  sometimes  by  oner- 
ous conditions  of  freedom,  more  regularly  by  the 
law  that  prescribed  for  their  master  the  first  right 
in  the  inheritance  of  his  freedman,  and  also  com- 
pelled the  latter  to  come  to  the  master's  financial 
help  on  certain  occasions. 

II. 

Was  there,  then,  no  free  labor  in  the  city  of  Rom- 
ulus? Out  of  its  one  and  a  half  million  inhabitants 
we  have  seen  that  fully  seven  to  eight  hundred 
thousand  were  slaves.  Of  the  remaining  half,  per- 
haps four  hundred  thousand  formed  the  proletariat, 


128  SLAVERY  AND  FREE  LABOR  IN  PAGAN  ROME. 

i.e.,  the  poor  but  free  inhabitants  of  the  city,  the 
awful  mob  into  wliich  the  original  plebeians  had 
grown,  the  refuse  of  victories,  triumphs,  and  ovations, 
the  declasses  of  the  world  feeding  on  the  crumbs  and 
offal  of  the  world's  high  banquet-table.  Some  of 
them  lived  as  cHents  or  hangers-on  of  the  great  fam- 
ilies both  old  and  new,  surrounded  the  litters  of  the 
golden  youth  of  Rome  or  the  shining  courtesans 
from  Greece  or  Asia,  or  bore  aloft  the  gilded  poles 
with  the  medallions  of  ancestry  in  ivory  or  mosaic. 
Others  found  an  easy  berth  in  the  service  of  some 
temple,  or  as  a  lictor  or  scribe  for  some  magistrate. 
The  numerous  bureaux  of  the  great  city,  the  double 
treasury  of  the  Senate  and  the  Emperor,  the  tax 
and  customs  offices,  the  quarters  of  the  praetor  and 
the  qusestor,  the  edile  and  the  great  lawyers,  kept 
alive  an  insolent  multitude. 

Most  of  this  class  lived  by  very  crooked  and 
shameful  means.  They  turned  mimics  or  comedians, 
priests  of  Isis  or  Adonis,  soothsayers,  astrologers, 
gladiators,  dancers,  buffoons,  jockeys.  They  were  ad- 
venturers and'' promoters  "  of  every  enterprise  from 
Mount  Atlas  to  the  shores  of  Britain.  A  few  of  the 
proletariat  did  indeed  earn  an  honest  living — they 
appeared  as  members  of  ''societies  for  the  humble 
and  lowly,''  worked  by  the  side  of  their  slave  breth- 
ren, ate  and  lived  with  them,  and  in  death  were  not 


SLAVERY  AND  FREE  LABOR  IN  PAGAN  ROME.  129 

separated:  their  cinerary  urns  reposed  side  by  side 
in  the  little  crypts  that  common  contributions  had 
bought  and  sustained  in  out-of-the-way  spots  off  the 
great  arteries  of  imperial  traffic. 

Thus  the  poor  free  man  was  compelled  to  a  fife  of 
Idleness  with  consequent  personal  disgrace  and  self- 
contempt.  He  became  actually  a  cehbate — why 
should  he  marry  and  bring  up  a  family  whom  no 
future  tempted,  no  opening  attracted,  whose  prog- 
eny could  only  swell  the  ''rabblement"  and  ''tag- 
rag  people"  of  Rome?  At  the  best  he  was  de- 
scended from  the  hardy  local  peasantry  of  Rome, 
whom  the  patricians,  like  Coriolanus,  ever  reckoned 
"woollen  vassals,  things  created  to  buy  and  sell 
with  groats,  to  show  bare  heads  in  congregations, 
to  yawn,  be  still  and  wonder.''  At  the  worst 
they  were  just  in  from  Puteoli,  or  Brindisi,  or 
Marseilles,  the  wreckage  of  the  latest  war  or  the 
victims  of  the  latest  Verres.  One  hour  their  poor 
plaint  would  echo  in  the  streets  or  before  some 
thriving  lawyer  of  long  phrases  and  short  ful- 
filment, then  they  would  drift  into  the  tower-like 
tenements  of  the  Suburra,  to  be  transformed  into 
the  ''Roman  people."  Of  them  Montesquieu  could 
rightly  say  that  they  had  no  share  in  the  Roman 
state,  except  a  claim  to  support  allowed  from  fear 
and  kept  up  by  custom. 


130  SLAVERY  AND  FREE  LABOR  IN  PAGAN  ROME, 

Economically,  slavery  proved  at  Rome,  as  else- 
where, the  falsest  basis  of  public  life.  This  poor 
free  population,  thrown  out  of  its  Italian  farms  by 
the  disorders  and  injustices  of  the  closing  century 
of  the  Republic,  gathered  in  congested  masses  at 
Rome.  Every  province  sent  a  percentage  of  simi- 
larly situated  men.  Tacitus  complains  that  Rome 
had  become  a  kind  of  social  sewer  for  the  world,  and 
satirists  likened  it  to  a  sea  into  which  debouched  all 
the  rivers  of  humanity.  Long  after  them,  the  Chris- 
tian bishop  Leo  the  Great  could  compare  the  old 
pagan  city  to  "an  ocean  of  stormiest  depth  and  a 
forest  of  raging  beasts.''  The  riches  that  were  won 
early  from  the  perfected  machine  of  slavery  were 
now  spent  upon  the  support  of  this  huge  army  of 
the  proletariat.  Food  was  distributed  to  them  regu- 
larly, every  month  or  oftener.  In  the  time  of  Pom- 
pey  320,000  had  a  right  to  these  "distributions." 
Caesar  reduced  their  number  by  about  one-half,  but 
they  again  reached  the  figures  of  Pompey's  time 
during  the  reigns  of  Trajan  and  Marcus  Aurelius. 
One-fifth  of  all  indirect  taxation  went  to  the  support 
of  this  idle  mob.  High  stands  were  erected  in  dif- 
ferent regions  of  the  city  whence  the  panis  gradilis, 
or  "step-bread,"  was  issued  to  them  by  tickets  that 
authorized  the  withdrawal  of  so  much  wheat  from 
the  great  public  granaries  by  the  Tiber.     When  the 


SLAVERY  AND  FREE  LABOR  IN  PAGAN  ROME.  131 

imperial  fortune  was  at  its  flood  it  is  thought  that 
twelve  dollars'  worth  of  wheat  per  capita  was  given 
out  yearly;  when  we  recollect  the  cheapness  of 
wheat  and  the  purchasing  power  of  coin,  the  fact  is 
noteworthy.  Sometimes  oil  and  meat  were  added. 
When  on  one  occasion  an  emperor  proposed  to  dis- 
tribute a  monthly  allowance  of  wine  to  the  ''Roman 
people/'  he  was  withheld  only  by  the  suggestion 
that  he  would  be  obliged  to  add  geese  and  pullets. 
In  the  great  games  silver  was  sometimes  showered 
on  the  mob,  sometimes  tickets  good  for  food,  wine, 
even  jewels,  paintings,  ships,  houses,  and  estates. 
Did  the  emperor  celebrate  any  anniversary,  was  a 
new  one  created,  then  large  presents  of  money 
must  be  given  to  the  mob  and  especially  to  the 
soldiers,  from  whose  pockets  it  soon  went  into  the 
till  of  the  caupo,  or  saloon-keeper,  one  of  the  only 
trades  left  to  the  poor  free  man.  In  one  year  Au- 
gustus gave  out  to  each  of  this  class  over  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty  dollars,  Marcus  AureHus  nearly 
twice  as  much.  The  habit  spread  from  the  Caesars 
to  the  nobles  and  the  rich,  and  the  whole  city  was 
often  one  vast  dining-hall,  so  much  so  that  Tertul- 
lian's  ire  is  moved  at  the  ''stinking  breath"  of  this 
"mutable  rank-scented  mob."  Sometimes  their 
rents  were  paid  for  a  year  ahead  by  some  individual 
anxious  for  their  favor;   sometimes  all  the  barbers 


132  SLAVERY  AND  FREE  LABOR  IN  PAGAN  ROME. 

in  the  city  were  retained  for  the  service  of  the  "Ro- 
man people."  Between  the  imposing  games  that 
took  up  half  the  year  and  the  solemn  funerals  of  the 
rich  and  noble,  the  remaining  leisure  of  the  prole- 
tariat was  heavily  drawn  on.  When  one  of  them 
got  ready  to  climb  down  from  his  high  perch  in  the 
Suburra,  he  went  with  his  basket  to  the  nearest  rich 
man's  dormis,  or  palace,  where  he  got  his  morning 
meal.  Thence  he  would  stroll  to  the  neighboring 
square,  where  he  would  get  his  month's  hon,  or 
ticket  for  wheat  of  Africa  or  Egypt  or  Sicily.  His 
dinner  awaited  him  at  some  one  of  the  many  public 
feasts,  or  at  some  private  celebration,  some  marriage, 
or  coming  of  age,  some  dedication  of  a  temple  or  a 
statue,  some  reading  of  a  new  poem  or  the  installa- 
tion of  some  relative  in  a  fat  government  office  at 
Alexandria  or  Antioch.  Did  he  care  for  a  little 
amusement?  There  were  the  splendid  architec- 
tural piles  known  as  the  baths  of  Agrippa  or  Cara- 
calla,  where,  besides  the  care  of  the  person,  popular 
recreation  of  the  most  exquisite  kind  was  provided 
for  in  gymnasiums  and  libraries.  On  the  temple- 
spaces,  with  their  broad  sweeps  of  white  marble  steps, 
or  in  the  long  porticoes  with  their  elegant  mono- 
liths of  pink  or  gray  marble  of  Baveno  or  Syene,  he 
would  meet  his  equals  fresh  from  the  excitement  of 
the  Circus  or  the  slaughters  of  the  Colosseum,  if,  in- 


SLAVERY  AND  FREE  LABOR  IN  PAGAN  ROME.  133 

deed,  they  had  not  rather  come  from  a  few 
hours'  sitting  at  the  nasty  ''continuous  vaude- 
ville" performances  of  the  pantomime  theatres— 
that  soupape  of  Roman  virility  and  good  for- 
tune. Thus  his  life  was  of  pleasure  and  idleness 
all  made  up,  enhanced  by  the  salubrity  of  the  cli- 
mate and  the  security  of  the  state.  Truly  Cicero 
could  well  say  that  the  Roman  "plebs"  led  a  happy 
Hfe,  since  it  was  abundantly  supplied  with  all  the 
good  things  of  the  world,  and  was  freed  from  any  of 
the  carking  cares  of  existence.  One  of  the  em- 
perors, Vopiscus  tells  us,  used  to  say  that  nothing 
amused  him  so  much  as  the  ''Roman  people"  after 
a  great  banquet. 

It  had  come  to  this,  that  the  monopoly  of  all 
earnest  and  useful  labor  had  made  of  the  poor  free 
multitude  at  Rome  (and  the  example  of  Rome  was 
all-powerful  in  the  Empire)  a  fattened  beast,  with 
all  the  low  passions  of  a  beast.  Caesars  came  and 
went;  for  the  proletariat  it  was  only  a  question  of 
the  "  full  basket "  and  the  gayeties  of  life.  They  had 
helped  to  rob  the  slave  of  his  natural  liberty  and  his 
imprescriptible  human  rights.  The  slave,  in  turn, 
dug  the  grave  of  the  Empire.  There  came  a  turn  in 
the  fortune  of  Rome:  the  power  of  Persia  rose  in 
the  far  Orient,  the  hordes  of  Northern  and  Eastern 
barbarians  were  in  motion  toward  the  Rhine  and 


134  SLAVERY  AND  FREE  LABOR  IN  PAGAN  ROME. 

the  Danube,  impelled  by  internal  revolutions  in 
China.  The  slave-market  was  no  longer  crowded, 
the  wheat-supply  was  threatened,  the  vast  farms  or 
ranches  of  Italy  and  Gaul  were  less  productive. 
Pestilence  and  earthquake  and  famine  and  seditions 
fell,  flail-like,  on  the  trembling  provinces.  Then 
appeared  all  the  secret  curses  of  the  slave-trust: 
the  rich,  after  being  made  for  three  or  four  centuries 
to  bear  the  burden  of  state  socialism  in  the  feeding 
and  amusing  of  an  ignorant  and  malicious  prole- 
tariat, were  now  compelled  to  pay  the  expenses  of 
the  state  administration.  The  taxes  were  collected 
directly  from  them,  which  opened  their  eyes  to  the 
evils  of  a  timocratic  state.  And  when  they  turned 
to  the  ^f citizens"  to  reimburse  them,  they  had  only 
the  impoverished  mobs  of  the  cities  and  the  broken- 
hearted descendants  of  those  slaves  who  once  culti- 
vated the  great  ranches  of  the  rich  men  of  Rome. 
Neither  in  the  cities  nor  in  the  country  districts  was 
there  bravery  or  good  will.  On  every  border  of  the 
Empire  its  enemies  were  welcomed  and  aided.  The 
slaves  sulked  or  rebelled,  or  were  concihated  only 
by  the  quasi-abandonment  of  the  great  estates  into 
their  hands  as  ^'coloni"  or  serfs.  The  proletariat 
would  neither  fight  with  vigor  nor  bear  with  pa- 
tience the  reverses  of  fortune.  The  armies  of  Rome 
were  made  up,  perforce,  of  German  mercenaries,  just 


SLAVERY  AND  FREE  LABOR  IN  PAGAN  ROME.  135 

fresh  from  the  woods  and  the  swamps  beyond  the 
Rhine,  in  reality  only  the  advance-guard  of  the  end- 
less procession  of  Goths,  Vandals,  Schwabs,  Heruls, 
Lombards,  who  were  soon  to  carve  free  and  pleasant 
kingdoms  for  themselves  out  of  the  ruins  of  the  great- 
est state  of  antiquity. 

The  fall  of  the  Roman  state  was  not,  it  is  true, 
owing  to  slavery  alone,  and  to  its  attitude  toward  free 
labor;  but  these  were  essential  causes,  as  all  men 
now  see.  Happy  we,  if  we  keep  in  mind  the  stern 
lesson  of  history  that  is  well  put  in  the  rather  trite 
verse  of  Goldsmith: 

"  111  fares  the  land,  to  hastening  ills  a  prey, 
Where  wealth  accumulates  and  men  decay." 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  CHRISTMAS. 

In  the  history  of  institutions  there  is  nothing 
more  instructive,  more  replete  with  dramatic  in- 
terest, more  typical  of  the  workings  of  Christianity 
than  the  evolution  of  the  Church  year.  From 
the  day  when  a  few  sorrowing  Jews  gathered  in 
an  upper  room  of  the  Holy  City  to  celebrate  the 
first  anniversary  of  the  Death  and  Resurrection  of 
their  Founder  it  has  developed  among  countless 
peoples  and  through  many  vicissitudes  of  culture 
and  time  into  an  admirable  cycle,  in  which,  as 
on  some  huge  stage,  the  whole  moving  history  of 
Christ  and  His  Chiu-ch  is  portrayed  on  a  scale  so 
sublime  and  cosmic,  so  conisistent  and  poetic,  that 
even  as  a  human  creation  it  ranks  among  the 
highest  products  of  man's  genius.  The  heart  of 
this  splendid  system,  in  and  through  which  the 
Christian  worship  has  reached  its  perfection,  is 
the  Resurrection  of  the  crucified  Jesus.  Around 
it  have   arisen   in  time   manifold  new  exhibitions 

of  an  unchanging  faith  in  Him — the  suave  efflores- 

137 


138  THE  ORIGIN  OF  CHRISTMAS. 

cence  of  piety  and  devotion  as  nurtured  in  the 
Church  and  adapted  to  the  needs  of  men  and  ages. 
Among  these  festivals,  though  not  the  first  in 
rank  nor  the  oldest,  Christmas  claims  still,  in  some 
respects,  a  pre-eminence,  as  the  day  on  which  the 
Saviour  was  born  upon  this  weary  and  sin-laden 
earth,  and  the  tidings  of  joy  were  proclaimed  that 
the  secular  reign  of  error  and  oppression  was  draw- 
ing to  an  end,  and  the  era  of  truth,  justice,  and 
spiritual  liberty  was  nigh  to  the  dawning. 

It  is  certain  that  at  the  end  of  the  third  cen- 
tury A.D.  the  birth  of  Christ  was  celebrated  in 
both  the  Eastern  and  Western  churches.  It  is 
equally  certain  that  at  the  beginning  of  the  fifth 
century  that  feast  was  celebrated  in  the  whole 
Christian  Church  (if  we  except  the  Donatists  and 
the  city  of  Jerusalem)  on  the  25th  of  December. 
But  between  these  points  there  was  much  differ- 
ence as  to  the  day  on  which  the  birth  of  Our  Lord 
was  to  be  celebrated.  The  Acts  of  the  Passion  of 
St.  Philip  of  Heraclea  show  that  the  feast  of 
Epiphany  was  observed  in  the  Eastern  Church  at 
the  end  of  the  third  century.  Now  it  is  sure  that 
throughout  the  greater  part  of  the  fourth  century 
the  Easterns  included  the  birth  of  Christ  among 
the  four  reasons  for  that  feast.    Thus  at  that  period 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  CHRISTMAS.  139 

the  churches  of  Egypt,  Syria,  and  Palestine  cele- 
brated the  Nativity  of  Christ  on  the  6th  of  January. 
St.  Epiphanius,  a  writer  of  the  latter  half  of 
the  fourth  century,  is  very  positive  as  to  the  birth 
of  Jesus  on  the  latter  date.  St.  Chrysostom, 
preaching  on  Christmas  Day,  388,  to  the  people 
of  Antioch,  defends  the  feast  from  the  reproach 
of  novelty,  although  he  admits  that  in  Syria  it 
was  then  scarcely  ten  years  old.  Other  Orientals 
of  the  early  part  of  the  third  centiu'y,  like  Clement 
of  Alexandria  and  Origen,  seem  to  be  ignorant  of 
any  celebration  of  the  birth  of  Christ.  The  lan- 
guage of  the  latter  almost  excludes  the  supposi- 
tion of  such  a  feast  in  the  capital  of  Egypt,  while 
the  former  speaks  of  it  in  connection  with  some 
Gnostic  heretics,  who  placed  the  date  in  April  or 
May.  The  act  of  St.  John  Chrysostom  was  not 
an  isolated  one.  In  379  St.  Gregory  Nazianzen, 
in  union  with  the  Emperor  Theodosius  the  Great, 
introduced  the  feast  into  Constantinople;  in  382 
St.  Gregory  of  Nyssa,  brother  of  the  great  St. 
Basil,  introduced  it  into  Pontus  and  Cappadocia. 
Clearly  it  was  the  authority  of  the  Roman  See 
that,  indirectly  at  least,  compassed  these  notable 
liturgical  acts.  It  is  no  small  matter  that,  in  face 
of  local  oppositions,  Constantinople  and  Antioch 
should  insert  in  the  calendar  a  specific  Roman  feast. 


140  THE  ORIGIN  OF  CHRISTMAS. 

The  tradition  of  the  25th  of  December  as  the 
birthday  of  Our  Lord  is  much  earlier  and  more 
positive  at  Rome  than  in  the  Orient.  St.  Augus- 
tine speaks  of  it  as  an  old  custom  in  his  time,  and 
in  this  he  is  supported  by  St.  Jerome,  as  well  as 
by  the  Cappadocians  SS.  Basil,  Gregory  Nazianzen, 
and  Gregory  of  Nyssa.  St.  Chrysostom  justified 
its  introduction  into  Antioch  by  the  example  of 
Rome,  wiser  in  this  matter  than  the  Orient.  His 
judgment  seems  to  have  been  influenced  by  a  copy 
of  the  Augustan  census  of  Judea,  which,  accord- 
ing to  him,  was  kept  in  a  public  place  at  Rome, 
and  proved  the  birth  of  Our  Lord  at  the  Roman 
date.  The  Apostolic  Constitutions,  an  episcopal 
manual  compiled  between  a.d.  350  and  425,  but 
containing  a  much  earlier  discipline,  mention  the 
25th  of  December  as  the  feast  of  the  Nativity. 
Cave  even  cited  Theophilus  of  Csesarea,  a  second- 
century  writer,  for  this  date;  the  passage  cited 
is  from  the  acts  of  a  council  held  at  Csesarea  in 
Palestine  about  a.d.  190.  These  acts  have  come 
down  to  us  through  the  writings  of  St.  Bede,  the 
famous  historian  of  the  English  Church  in  the 
first  quarter  of  the  eighth  century.  Their  genuine- 
ness is  yet  somewhat  doubtful,  though  the  newest 
studies  on  St.  Bede  show  that  he  was  well  versed 
in  the   most   ancient   Christian   literature. 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  CHRISTMAS.  141 

Very  lately  there  has  been  discovered  in  a 
Greek  monastery  of  the  island  of  Chalcis  a  copy 
of  the  commentary  of  Hippolytus  on  Daniel,  in 
the  fourth  book  of  which  it  is  very  clearly 
stated  that  Christ  was  born  on  the  25th  of  De- 
cember. Possibly  this  is  an  interpolation,  as 
some  critics  maintain.  If  it  were  genuine,  we 
would  have  here  a  local  tradition  of  the  Roman 
Church  in  the  early  part  of  the  third  century 
vouched  for  by  one  of  its  most  brilliant  writers 
and  officers.  Such  a  tradition,  so  soon  fixed  in 
the  public  worship  of  the  Roman  Church,  would 
bring  us  within  hailing  distance  of  the  apostolic 
memories  and  ordinances.  Unexceptionable  from 
every  point  of  view  is  the  notice  in  the  Philocalian 
Calendar  of  a.d.  336  that  Jesus  was  born  in  Beth- 
lehem of  Juda  on  December  25th.  Shortly  after, 
about  the  middle  of  the  fourth  century  (354),  we 
find  St.  Liberius  receiving  at  Rome,  on  Christmas 
Day,  the  vows  of  Marcellina,  the  sister  of  St.  'Am- 
brose. With  all  these  evidences  of  ancient  origin 
it  seems  strange  that  the  little  ecclesiastico-as- 
tronomical  tract  De  Pascha  Computus  of  the  year 
243,  written  either  in  Italy  or  Africa,  is  silent 
about  the  feast  of  the  25th  of  December,  or  rather 
says  positively  that  the  birth  of  Jesus  took  place 
on  March  28th;    'Hhe  day  on  which  God  created 


142  THE  ORIGIN  OF  CHRISTMAS. 

the  sun  was  the  fittest  day  for  the  birth  of  the 
Sun  of  justice." 

The  feast  of  Epiphany  appears  for  the  first  time, 
as  stated,  toward  the  end  of  the  third  century, 
and  particularly  at  Heraclea  in  Thrace,  once  the 
metropolitan  see  of  Byzantium.  Shortly  after  the 
year  200  a  feast  of  the  birth  of  the  Lord  was 
celebrated  at  Alexandria  by  Basilidian  Gnostics, 
which  fact  no  doubt  moved  the  ecclesiastical  au- 
thorities to  introduce  a  similar  one  among  the 
orthodox.  Previous  to  the  Council  of  Nicsea  (325) 
there  is  no  trace  of  Epiphany  in  the  West;  it  is 
not  found  on  the  calendar  of  the  Donatists,  who 
separated  from  the  Church  between  312  and  320. 
Apparently  it  made  its  way  into  the  Western 
churches  at  the  same  period  that  Christmas  was 
adopted  in  the  Orient.  Only,  the  W^estern 
churches  laid  stress,  not  on  the  birth  of  Christ, 
but  on  the  manifestation  of  His  divinity  to  the 
Magi,  on  His  baptism,  and  on  the  miracles  of 
Cana.  It  was  celebrated  in  Gaul  a.d.  360,  as 
we  know  by  a  passage  in  Ammianus  Marcellinus 
(XXI.  2,  5)  concerning  Julian  the  Apostate.  A 
Council  of  Saragossa  in  Spain  (380)  ordains  in 
its  fourth  canon  that  no  one  shall  be  absent  from 
the  daily  church  service  during  the  eight  days 
that    precede  Christmas    and    up    to    the    Sunday 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  CHRISTMAS.  143 

within    the    octave    of    Epiphany.     Dr.    Baeiimer 
thinks  that  we  have  in  this  canon  and  in  certain 
statements    of   St.   Csesarius  of  Aries    the    earUest 
evidence    of   the    Advent    preparation    for    Christ- 
mas.    In  the  very  ancient  and  curious  manuscript 
roll   belonging   to    Prince    Antonio    Pio    of    Savoy 
there  are  some  forty  prayers  dating  from  the  fifth 
century;    one  of  them  reads  as  follows:    ''Grant, 
we  beseech  Thee,  0  omnipotent  God,  the  prayers 
of  Thy  people!   Let  Thy  justice  shine  from  heaven, 
and  the  whole  earth  bring  forth  joy  so  that  on 
the    coming    [Advent]    of    the    Redeemer    of    the 
world.    Thy    Son,    our    souls    may   be    filled    with 
abundance    of    blessings!"     Some    of    these    very 
prayers  are  yet  in  use  in  the  divine  office  accord- 
ing to  the  Ambrosian  rite;    others  are  still  to  be 
seen  in  the  Leonine  Sacramentary,  a  Roman  Mass- 
book  of  the  latter  half  of  the  fifth  century  or  the 
early    part    of    the    sixth.     Another    fragment    of 
the    rotidus    just   mentioned,    lately    published   by 
the    illustrious    Ceriani,   librarian    of    the   Ambro- 
siana  at  Milan,  contains  a  lovely  Christmas  prayer 
which    lets    in    much    fight    on    the    purity    and 
sublimity  of  ancient  Roman  Christian  theological 
thought: 

'10  God,  who  didst  lie  shrouded  [velatus]  with- 
in a  bodily  shelter,  and  bemg  made  known  [re- 


144  THE  ORIGIN  OF  CHRISTMAS. 

velatus]  didst  leave  intact  that  original  cloister, 
go  forth,  we  beseech  Thee,  as  the  Saviour  of  the 
world  and  the  Redeemer  of  mankind,  so  that 
while  we  adore  the  glory  of  Thy  dual  nature,  we 
may,  with  one  accord  and  correct  faith,  praise  the 
unity  of  Thy  divine  majesty/' 

The  origin  of  the  feast  of  Christmas  has  been 
the  subject  of  much  investigation  within  the  last 
few  years.  Usener,  Probst,  Duchesne,  and  others 
have  consecrated  much  skill  and  labor  to  the 
question  and  added  something  to  the  efforts  of 
Cotelier,  Martene,  Tillemont,  Bingham,  and  Bene- 
dict XIV.,  among  the  older  schoolmen  of  history. 
What  was  the  motive  of  its  introduction?  Leav- 
ing aside  the  supposition  that  it  was  celebrated 
earlier  than  the  third  century,  and  holding  in 
abeyance  the  question  whether  it  represents  the 
actual  date  of  the  birth  of  Christ  or  not,  two  mo- 
tives have  been  urged  for  its  celebration  at  this 
peculiar  time.  One  is  that  it  was  meant  to  offset 
the  Saturnalia,  a  licentious  pagan  carnival  cele- 
brated from  the  17th  to  the  23d  of  December. 
But  the  very  date,  after  the  Saturnalia,  precludes 
this,  and  there  is  no  evidence  to  justify  this  sup- 
position. The  other  is  that  it  was  established  to 
counteract  the  pagan  feast  of  the  invincible  Sun 
{natalis  Solis  invicti),  celebrated^  according  to  the 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  CHRISTMAS.  145 

Julian  Calendar,  on  the  25th  of  December.  This 
may  have  been  among  the  motives  of  the  feast, 
especially  as  the  Mithraic  cult  of  the  sun  was  in 
great  vogue  during  the  third  century  and  per- 
plexed the  Christians  by  its  proselytism  and  its 
imitation  of  their  peculiar  institutions.  Mgr. 
Duchesne  suggests  that  astronomico-symbolical 
motives  may  have  had  something  to  do  with  the 
date.  According  to  very  ancient  Christian  be- 
lief Christ  died  on  the  25th  of  March,  and  as  He 
must  have  lived  an  integral  number  of  years,  dat- 
ing from  His  incarnation,  the  latter  must  have 
taken  place  on  a  similar  date,  whence  His  birth 
on  the  25th  of  December.  But  these  are  the  hy- 
potheses of  critics  and  students.  Far  more  prob- 
able is  it  that  the  Roman  practice  of  the  fourth 
century  represents  an  accurate  preservation  of 
the  true  date,  based  on  documents  now  lost.  Of 
the  numerous  chronological  controversies  of  the 
second  and  third  centuries  very  little  has  come 
down  to  us  outside  of  the  titles  of  books.  The 
exterior  growth  of  the  habit  of  celebrating  the 
birthdays  of  the  emperors  would  naturally  lead 
to  a  more  positive  tribute  to  the  King  of  kings 
and  the  Lord  of  lords,  who  had  laid  aside,  for  the 
relief  of  humanity,  all  the  majesty  of  deity. 


146  THE  ORIGIN  OF  CHRISTMAS. 

"That  glorious  form,  that  light  unsufferable, 
And  that  far-beaming  blaze   of   majesty, 
Wherewith  He  wont  at  Heaven's  high  council-table 
To  sit  the  midst  of  Trinal  Unity, 
He  laid  aside,  and  here  with  us  to  be 
Forsook  the  courts  of  everlasting  day, 
And  chose  with  us  a  house  of  darksome  clay." 

It  may  be  worth  while  recaUing  that  as  early 
as  the  third  century  the  natalis  Petri  de  Cathedra, 
or  birthday  (i.e.^  feast)  of  the  Chair  of  St.  Peter, 
was  celebrated  at  Rome  by  the  faithful.  So, 
too,  the  natalis,  or  birthday,  (unto  Christ)  of 
many  a  martyr  was  celebrated  with  such  splen- 
dor as  the  conditions  allowed.  Among  so  many 
''birthdays'^  what  is  more  natural  than  the  cele- 
bration of  the  birth  of  the  true  Imperator  of  the 
Christians,  from  whom  His  vicar  held  jurisdic- 
tion, of  the  King  of  martyrs  whose  expiation  began 
with  His  birth?  Certain  it  is  that  the  third  cen- 
tury saw  the  growth  of  a  more  intense  and  clear 
consciousness  among  Christians  that  they  were 
the  true  kingdom  of  God,  and  that  Jesus  Christ 
was  their  glorious  and  invincible  Ruler.  Per- 
haps from  this  period  dates  the  habit  of  counter- 
signing the  Acts  of  the  Martyrs  with  the  words 
''In  the  reign  of  Our  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  At 
Rome,  more  easily  than  elsewhere,  the  frequency 
and  majesty  of  imperial  ceremony  would  deepen 
the   Christian    sense    of   the    Eternal    Kingship    of 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  CHRISTMAS.  147 

Jesus,  and  suggest  a  formal,  if  domestic,  recog- 
nition of  it.  Not  improbably  it  was  long  a  Chris- 
tian family  feast  in  the  humble  space  that  shel- 
tered the  Chair  of  Peter  and  its  temporary  occu- 
pant before  the  war  of  extermination  waged, 
about  A.D.  300,  against  the  persons,  property, 
and  documents  of  the  Roman  Church.  Only  those 
who  habitually  deal  with  the  history  of  the  early 
Christian  ages  know  by  how  many  slender  but 
firm  roots  the  Roman  Church  is  connected  with 
the  beginnings  of  Christianity. 

The  idea  of  a  series  of  saints^  days  immediately 
after  Christmas  seems  to  have  originated  at  Rome 
between  350  and  380,  to  be  taken  over  soon  by 
the  Orient.  They  were  formerly  the  feasts  of 
St.  Stephen,  protomartyr;  St.  Peter,  prince  of 
the  apostles;  St.  James  the  Apostle  (Minor), 
St.  John  the  Apostle,  St.  Paul  the  Apostle,  with 
December  31st  vacant,  and  on  the  first  of  Jan- 
uary St.  Basil.  Father  Nilles  and  Dr.  Baeumer 
explain  that  these  saints  are  placed  here  by  a 
kind  of  convmientia;  it  seemed  suitable  that  the 
King  of  kings  should  be  surrounded  at  once  by 
His  chief  courtiers,  counsellors,  ministers  and  ser- 
vants. For  several  of  these  saints  the  Church 
was  ignorant  of  their  natalitia,  or  day  of  entry 
into  the  joy  of  paradise;  hence  they  were  suitably 


148  THE  ORIGIN  OF  CHRISTMAS, 

honored  in  the  immediate  presence  of  Him,  who 
had  chosen  them  as  His  agents.  The  thought  is 
kin  to  that  which  made  the  ancient  Christian 
mosaicists  of  Rome  place  the  apostles  as  '^  asses- 
sors" with  Jesus  Christ  in  the  scene  of  Final  Judg- 
ment. The  above-mentioned  order  is  given  in 
the  funeral  oration  of  St.  Gregory  of  Nyssa  over 
his  brother,  St.  Basil.  It  is  confirmed  by  a  very 
old  Syriac  martyrology,  written  a.d.  412,  now 
in  the  British  Museum,  and  published  in  1865-66 
by  the  Syriac  scholar  William  Wright.  From 
all  this  it  is  clear  that  there  existed  at  the  end 
of  the  fourth  century  a  local  Roman  calendar  of 
feast-days,  and  that  the  immediate  post-Christ- 
mas feasts  are,  or  once  were,  borrowed  from  it. 
With  many  other  valuable  Roman  documents  it 
is  long  since  lost,  and  scholars  exercise  their  learn- 
ing and  ingenuity  in  piecing  together  what  seem 
to  be  its  remnants. 

A  very  strong  proof  for  the  antiquity  of  the 
Christmas  festival  is  found  in  the  fact  that  from 
time  immemorial  when  it  falls  on  Friday  there  is 
neither  fasting  nor  abstinence  on  that  day.  There- 
by the  Church  placed  Christmas  on  a  level  with 
her  most  ancient  feasts,  the  Sundays,  Easter,  and 
Pentecost.  Formerly  the  feast  was  vested  with 
many    privileges.     The    intervening    days,  as    far 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  CHRISTMAS,  149 

as  Epiphany  inclusive,  were  public  holidays. 
Servants  and  slaves  had  a  day  of  repose  on  the 
occasion  of  the  feast.  The  shepherds  and  peas- 
ants were  obliged  to  attend  the  city  churches. 
Games  and  shows  were  prohibited.  There  was 
always  a  sermon  on  the  significance  of  the  mys- 
tery, and  some  of  the  best  efforts  of  St.  Leo,  St. 
Augustme,  St.  Peter  Chrysologus,  and  other  fathers 
were  pronounced  on  that  day.  Of  the  ancient 
privileges  of  Christmas  only  two  have  survived 
in  the  church  law,  one  of  eating  meat  when  it  falls 
on  Friday,  and  the  other,  peculiar  to  the  priests, 
of  celebrating  three  Masses  in  honor  of  the  three- 
fold generation  of  Christ,  viz.:  from  all  eternity 
in  the  bosom  of  the  Father,  in  time  in  the  womb 
of  the  Blessed  Virgin,  and  in  the  souls  of  the  just. 

The  practice  of  celebrating  three  Masses  has 
its  origin  at  Rome.  It  was  so  old  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  sixth  century  that  the  Liber  Pontifi- 
calis,  compiled  at  the  time,  referred  it  to  Pope 
Telesphore  of  the  second  century.  The  very  old 
Mass-books,  caUed  the  Gelasian  and  Gregorian 
Sacramentaries,  contain  each  three  Masses  for  the 
day.  Anciently  they  were  said  at  the  time  and 
in  the  order  in  which  they  are  prescribed  in  the 
Missal,  i.e.,  at   midnight,  before   the   aurora,  and 


150  THE  ORIGIN  OF  CHRISTMAS. 

after  sunrise.  We  know  that  in  the  sixth  cen- 
tury, and  probably  earlier,  the  Pope  was  wont 
to  say  these  three  Masses  at  St.  Mary  Major's, 
St.  Anastasia's  (whose  feast  occurred  that  day), 
and  at  St.  Peter^s.  Curiously  enough,  the  preface 
of  the  Nativity,  several  collects,  and  many  parts 
of  the  Masses  remain  identically  what  they  were 
fourteen  hundred  years  ago,  so  jealous  is  the 
Church  of  her  liturgy  and  so  capable  of  preserv- 
ing it  from  substantial  alteration.  The  midnight 
vigil  of  Christmas  is  the  last  relic  of  a  very  conmion 
custom  in  the  first  Christian  ages  of  celebrating 
nocturnal  vigils  for  the  feasts  of  the  saints.  The 
attendant  disorders  discredited  them,  so  that  only 
the  venerable  vigil  of  the  Nativity  escaped.  In 
the  early  middle  ages  all  the  people  were  expected 
to  attend  the  midnight  Mass  and  to  communicate, 
under  pain  of  three  years'  excommunication,  as 
a  means  of  compelling  the  performance  of  what 
we  now  call  Easter  duty.  Perhaps  this  is  the 
meaning  of  the  tradition  that  the  Emperor  Justin 
(the  first  or  the  second)  ordered  Christmas  to  be 
everywhere  celebrated,  no  doubt  by  confession 
and  communion,  for  it  was  a  common  feast  long 
before  the  time  of  either  Justin. 

At  an  early  date  legend  and  fancy  seized  upon 
the  feast  and  decked  it  out  with  charming  mjrths. 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  CHRISTMAS,  151 

There   are   some   few  left  from  the  Grseco-Roman 
time,  such  as  the  story  that  at  Christ's  birth  the 
Temple  of  Peace  at  Rome  collapsed;   that  a  spring 
of  oil  burst  out  in  the  Trastevere  and  flowed  the 
whole   day   long   into  the   Tiber;    that   Augustus 
saw  in  the  air  the  Blessed  Virgin  with  the  child 
in  her  arms  and  dedicated  to  them  an  altar  of  the 
First-bom    God.    Pretty    fancies!     not    unnatural 
in  a  people  who  project  back  upon  their  pagan 
past  some  small  share  of  their  new  Christian  con- 
sciousness.   It    was    the    Germanic    peoples,    how- 
ever, who  were  destined  to  make  the  fortune  of 
Christmas.    It  fell  at  a  time  when  they  were  wont 
to  celebrate  their  pagan  sacrifices,  and  the  mission- 
aries  prudently   gave   their  traditional  customs   a 
Christian    sense    and    direction.     The    rich    cheer, 
the    abundant     presents,     the    lavish    hospitality 
of  their  old  pagan  days  were  not  abolished.     Nor 
were    the    numerous    Scandinavian    ceremonies    in 
honor  of  Yule,  the  log,  the  candle,  the  boar's  head, 
the  common  feasting.    The  Lord  of  Misrule    and 
the  Abbot  of  Unreason  continued  the  carnivalesque 
character    of    the     northern    Yuletide,    whHe    the 
mince  pies  and  spice   cakes  recall  the  gross  and 
barbarous  wassailings  of  the  primitive  Goth  and 
Saxon.    Under  men  like  Gregory,   Augustine  and 
Theodore  of   Canterbury,  Aldhelm   and   Daniel   of 


152  THE  ORIGIN  OF  CHRISTMAS. 

Winchester,  such  habits  were  gradually  modified, 
and  within  a  short  time  the  fierce  pirates  of  the 
Northern  seas  gave  to  God  saintly  men  like  Wil- 
frid, Willibrod,  Winfred  (Boniface),  and  saintly 
women  like  Eadburg,  Hilda,  Lioba,  and  countless 
others.  '^It  is  only  by  a  long  course  of  training 
that  the  fancy  and  imagination  can  be  brought 
to  rim  in  the  new  groove  of  thought,"  says  Brother 
Azarias  in  his  "Development  of  English  Thought." 
''To  that  end  does  the  Church  bring  to  bear  all 
her  teaching  and  discipline.  By  degrees  she  weeds 
out  the  tares  of  the  old  faith  and  plants  the  new. 
But  there  are  also  in  every  race  and  age  elect  souls 
who  are  impatient  of  such  slow  formation  and 
leap  at  once  into  the  front  rank  of  Christian  heroes 
and  heroines." 

The  public  feasts  of  the  Church  were  among 
the  most  powerful  influences  for  good  that  the 
mediaeval  Church  possessed.  In  the  absence  of 
great  cities  and  extensive  commerce  they  served 
to  gather  the  people  together,  to  break  doVn  the 
isolation  in  which  the  noble  and  the  peasant  habit- 
ually lived.  For  a  short  while  private  war  ceased, 
Christian  charity  prevailed,  and  the  voice  of  the 
preacher  was  listened  to  by  vast  multitudes,  who 
for  another  year  perhaps  would  not  again  visit 
the  haunts  of  men.    The  Church  made  the  most 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  CHRISTMAS.  153 

of  such  occasions.  Hence  we  need  not  be  sur- 
prised to  find  that  Christmas  was  at  an  early  date 
one  of  the  great  feasts  on  which  the  mystery  plays 
were  executed.  We  possess  a  certain  number  of 
them  yet,  just  as  they  were  carried  out  in  France 
and  Southern  Germany.  They  are  quaint  and 
comical  to  our  modern  taste,  but  were  full  of  mean- 
ing to  our  ancestors,  whose  faith  was  so  much  more 
direct  and  intense. 

In  the  Christmas  plays  the  Sibyl  exchanges 
views  with  Daniel  and  Jeremias,  while  Vergil  is 
enlightened  alternately  by  Isaias  and  John  the 
Baptist.  The  stage  was  the  public  square,  and 
the  unities  were  poorly  observed;  yet  our  mod- 
ern theatre  is  deeply  indebted  to  these  mediaeval 
mystery  plays,  which  were  the  work  of  church- 
men both  as  writers  and  actors,  though  the 
Church  herself  cannot  be  said  to  have  encouraged 
them.  Akin  to  the  mysteries  are  the  Noels,  or 
religious  canticles  sung  by  the  people  on  Christmas 
Eve,  and  of  which  lovely  carols  France  possesses 
yet  a  rich  collection.  They  were  originally  meant 
to  while  away  the  long  vigil  of  Christmas,  when 
the  great  logs  burned  slowly  in  the  fireplace  and 
the  storm  raged  lustily  without.  The  simple  habits 
of  other  days  have  in  great  measure  passed  away, 


154  THE  ORIGIN  OF  CHRISTMAS. 

but  the  canticles  of  our  forefathers,  inherited  by 
them  from  still  earlier  ages,  yet  live  to  entrance 
the  hearers  of  the  midnight  Mass  and  to  bear  wit- 
ness to  the  pious  sense  and  the  delicate  ear  of  men 
whom  we  too  lightly  undervalue.  The  Middle 
Ages  had  a  great  '^  Bible  of  Noels,"  which  seems 
to  have  been  of  Greek  origin.  In  his  spiritual 
letters  St.  Francis  of  Sales  has  more  than  one 
thought  in  common  with  these  old  mediaeval  singers. 
We  may  be  tempted  to  smile  at  what  seems  to 
us  the  uncouth,  uncultured  conception  of  this  great 
Christian  festival  on  the  part  of  our  forefathers. 
But  the  spirit  of  the  Church  was  ever  the  same, 
and  though  her  children  may  at  times  have  fallen 
below  it,  we  have  yet  the  splendid  pages  of  her 
liturgy  and  the  public  instructions  of  her  priests 
to  show  that  within  the  sanctuary  there  reigned 
at  all  times  the  most  profound  and  spiritual  views 
of  the  nature  and  celebration  of  this  feast.  The 
education  of  proud  and  barbarous  nations  was 
no  easy  task,  and  only  those  will  scoff  at  their 
weakness  and  the  motherly  indulgence  of  the 
Church  who  ignore  by  what  infinite  patience  and 
by  what  manifold  solicitude  the  hot,  ebullient 
natures  of  noble  barbarians  are  soothed  and  toned 
into  sympathy  with  the  habits  of  perfect  society 
and  the  restraints  of  a  sublime  religion.    The  old 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  CHRISTMAS.  155  . 

Puritan  showed  an  ignorance  of  human  nature 
as  common  in  the  sects  as  it  is  rare  in  the  Church 
when  he  suppressed  the  innocent  and  natural  en- 
joyments of  the  English  people  at  this  period. 
With  the  new  and  vigorous  life  of  Catholicism 
and  the  consequent  healthier  view  of  human  social 
relations,  the  cold  and  sombre  spirit  of  earlier  days 
(not  wanting,  I  confess,  in  a  certain  arid  grandeur 
and  rough  directness)  is  giving  way  on  all  sides 
to  views  of  life  and  humanity  more  kindly,  more 
tolerant  and  liberal,  more  in  keeping  with  the  glad 
burden  of  that  angelic  song  which  has  been  the 
Church's  watchword  from  the  most  ancient  times. 


WOMEN  IN  THE  EARLY  CHRISTIAN 
COMMUNITIES. 

To  the  cursory  reader  of  the  Gospel  scarcely  any- 
thing is  more  striking  than  the  infinite  tenderness 
and  the  immeasurable  pity  which  Jesus  manifested 
at  all  times  to  the  weaker  vessels  of  humanity.  He 
loved  to  dwell  surrounded  by  the  little  children; 
rough  treatment  of  them  annoyed  Him;  He  com- 
pared His  kingdom  to  their  pure  hearts ;  He  rejoiced 
that  the  little  and  the  humble  were  let  into  the  se- 
crets of  the  Father,  and  He  proposed  to  His  disciples 
as  the  model  of  ecclesiastical  authority  the  simple, 
direct,  and  candid  hearts  of  little  children. 

With  the  women  of  the  Jews  He  was  no  less  gentle 

and  pitiful.    Already  His  love  of  the  little  ones  must 

have  captivated  the  female  heart.    He  was  HimseK 

the  only  Son  of  Mary.    His  most  consoling  words 

were  for  the  women  of  Jerusalem,  His  most  touch- 

,ing  miracles  for  the  widow  of  Nairn,  the  Hsemor- 

rhaissa,  and  the  daughter  of  Jairus.    He  rendered 

a  delicate  homage  to  the  office  of  woman  when  he 

drew- from  the  pains  of  travail  one  of  the  most  pro- 

157 


u 


158  WOMEN  IN  EARLY  CHRISTIAN  COMMUNITIES. 

found  and  human-sorrowful  of  His  illustrations. 
And  in  the  sublime  scene  of  the  rehabiUtation  of  the 
fallen  sister  from  Magdala  He  defied  for  her  all  the 
social  convenances  and  executed  a  moral  revolution. 
He  began  His  miraculous  career  at  the  wedding  of 
a  young  Galilsean  bride.  In  return  the  women  of 
the  Jews  were  His  stanchest  defenders.  Some,  Hke 
Salome,  the  wife  of  Zebedee,  clung  to  Him  from  the 
beginning  to  the  end.  Others,  hke  Joanna  the 
wife  of  Chusa,  Herod's  steward,  and  Susanna  gave 
of  their  riches  for  His  support,  went  about  with  Him 
and  the  apostles  through  cities  and  towns  wherever 
the  good  news  was  spread  by  the  Master.  They 
anointed  His  head  and  feet;  they  rejoiced  more  than 
all  others  when  He  rode  triumphantly  into  Jerusalem ; 
they  sorrowed  at  the  gathering  clouds  which  were 
soon  to  burst  over  Him;  they  stood  afar  off  and 
wept  as  He  passed  on  to  His  doom;  they  remained 
when  aU  others  had  fled;  they  were  the  first  at  the 
sepulchre,  the  first  human  witnesses  of  the  Resur- 
rection, the  first  apostles  of  Christianity,  since  it  was 
they  who  first  carried  the  glad  tidings  that  Jesus 
hveth  for  evermore,  and  that  faith  in  Him  and  His 
promises  is  neither  vanity  nor  delusion. 

By  a  law  of  history  the  great  institutions  which 
most  affect  mankind  bear  always  certain  ineffaceable 


WOMEN  IN  EARLY  CHRISTIAN  COMMUNITIES.  159 

ear-marks  of  their  origins — the  aroma^  as  it  were, 
of  their  primitive  surroundings  and  the  best  indices 
of  the  spirit  and  aims  of  their  founders.  The  female 
sex,  which  plays  so  conspicuous  a  part  in  the  life  of 
Christ,  is  no  less  active  in  the  earliest  formative 
period  of  His  church.  On  the  morrow  of  the  Ascen- 
sion we  find  them  at  Joppe,  a  little  circle  of  Christian 
seamstresses,  imder  the  care  of  Dorcas,  paying  back 
by  the  coats  and  garments  they  made  the  ser- 
vices rendered  them  by  the  deacons  established  to 
take  care  of  the  needy  and  neglected.  Their  dwell- 
ings at  Jerusalem  were  among  the  first  churches  in 
which  the  brethren  broke  bread  from  house  to  house 
and  took  their  meat  with  gladness  and  simplicity  of 
heart.  When  Peter  was  delivered  by  the  angel  it 
was  to  the  house  of  Mary,  the  mother  of  John  Mar- 
cus, that  he  went,  where  many  were  gathered  to- 
gether and  praying.  After  the  dispersion  of  the 
apostles  we  find  in  the  meagre  records  of  their  his- 
tory numerous  facts  that  show  how  important  a 
share  women  had  in  the  success  of  their  evangelical 
labors.  The  Lady  Electa  would  seem,  according  to 
the  second  epistle  of  St.  John,  to  have  been  the  cen- 
tre of  an  important  community. 

I  need  only  to  refer  to  the  ancient  and  venerable 
local  traditions  of  Rome  which  preserve  the  memory 
of  the  relations  between  St.  Peter  and  the  females 


160  WOMEN  IN  EARLY  CHRISTIAN  COMMUNITIES. 

of  the  house  of  Pudens,  and  those  which  concern  the 
ancient  house  of  Prisca  on  the  Aventine.  The 
Christian  world  has  never  seen  devotion  superior  to 
that  which  the  earliest  Christian  matrons  of  Rome 
manifested.  Their  praises  are  in  Clement  of  Rome 
and  the  Shepherd  of  Hermas,  i.e.,  in  the  earliest 
non-canonical  literature  of  the  Christians.  But  it 
is  in  the  life  of  St.  Paul  that  the  Christian  female 
apostolate  finds  its  best-known  models.  This  time 
they  are  taken  not  from  the  Jewish  and  Syrian 
women,  the  Galilsean  neighbors  of  Christ,  and  the 
female  relatives  of  rough  fishermen,  but  from  among 
the  elegant  and  refined  society  of  Greek  cities. 
When  St.  Paul  began  to  preach  at  Philippi,  he  spoke 
to  the  women  who  had  assembled  by  the  river-side  to 
pray,  no  less  honorable  persons,  no  doubt,  than 
the  noble  women  of  Thessalonica,  and  the  still  more 
noble  and  honorable  women  of  Beroea,  who  shortly 
after  received  his  words  with  joy.  It  was  at  Phi- 
lippi that  he  met  and  converted  Lydia  of  Thyatira, 
the  purple  dealer,  whose  heart  the  Lord  specially 
opened  ''to  attend  to  those  things  which  were  said 
by  Paul,''  and  whose  hospitality  and  generosity 
the  Apostle  felt  bound  to  accept. 

We  may  believe  that  there  was  no  less  devotion 
to  the  Apostle  among  the   cultivated  matrons  of 


WOMEN  IN  EARLY  CHRISTIAN  COMMUNITIES.  161 

Ephesus  and  Corinth,  though  he  was  afterward 
obliged  to  utter  severe  reproofs  to  some  of  the  latter. 
Yet  he  seems  to  have  preserved  the  greatest  regard 
for  the  women  of  Philippi,  since  in  none  of  his  epistles 
do  we  find  stronger  expressions  of  affection  for  his 
converts  than  in  that  to  the  Philippians.  He  calls 
them  his  joy  and  his  crown,  and  in  the  same  breath 
utters  the  names  of  Evodia  and  Syntyche.  He 
speaks  of  his  '^ sincere  companion"  and  the  other 
women  who  liave  labored  with  him  and  Clement  in 
the  Gospel,  and  whose  names  are  written  in  the 
book  of  life.  Among  the  most  distinguished  of  his 
Athenian  converts  was  the  woman  named  Damaris. 
In  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  he  gives  us  an  insight 
into  the  little  circle  of  females  whom  he  had  not  yet 
seen,  but  whose  reputation  for  Christian  zeal  had 
gone  abroad,  like  the  faith  of  the  Romans,  into  the 
whole  world.  There  is  his  helper  in  Christ,  Prisca, 
the  same  as  Priscilla,  the  Roman  Jewess  who  with 
her  husband,  Aquila,  had  befriended  Paul  during 
their  exile  at  Corinth,  who  laid  down  their  necks 
for  him,  and  to  whom  all  the  churches  of  the  Gentiles 
were  indebted.  There  is  Mary,  ''who  hath  labored 
much  among  you.'' 

There  are  Tryphena  and  Tryphosa,  in  whom  some 
modern  critics  recognize  ladies  of  the  imperial  fam- 
ily, and  Persis,  ''the  dearly  beloved,  who  hath  much 


162  WOMEN  IN  EARLY  CHRISTIAN  COMMUNITIES. 

labored  in  the  Lord/'  There  is  the  mother  of  Rufus, 
so  dear  to  Paul  that  he  calls  her  his  own  mother,  and 
finally  there  are  Julia  and  the  sister  of  Nereus,  to- 
gether with  Olympias,  not  counting  the  unnamed 
women  of  the  households  of  Aristobulus  and  Narcis- 
sus, and  of  Nero  himself.  Of  Mary  and  Persis,  Try- 
phena  and  Tryphosa,  he  positively  says  that  they 
have  much  labored  in  the  Lord,  and  this  is  why  he 
is  so  bold  in  commending  to  them  the  person  and 
mission  of  their  sister  Phoebe,  "  who  is  in  the  ministry 
of  the  Church  that  is  in  Cenchrea,  and  who  has 
assisted  many  and  myself  also/' 

This  is  a  precious  page  from  the  earhest  records 
of  Christianity,  and  the  names  of  women  are  in- 
scribed on  it  in  immortal  lines.  They  are  the 
mothers  of  the  infant  churches,  the  laborers,  the 
helpers,  the  ministers,  the  providers,  and  the  con- 
solers. They  are  ranked  by  the  Apostle  for  devo- 
tion and  hard  work  with  the  bishops  and  priests  and 
chief  men  of  his  missions.  From  the  women  of 
Pome  and  Philippi  he  no  doubt  received  a  very  large 
share  of  the  funds  he  expended  on  his  missions  and 
charities.  They  kept  aUve  his  teachings  and 
sought  out  new  hearers  for  the  word  of  truth.  By 
a  delicate  and  subtle  instinct  woman  recognized 
from  the  beginning  all  that  Christianity  meant  for 
her,  and  no  one  labored  with  more  zeal  and  intelli- 


WOMEN  IN  EARLY  CHRISTIAN  COMMUNITIES.  163 

gence  to  spread  and  explain  the  new  teachings 
which  recognized  in  her  an  equal  and  opened  such 
illimitable  avenues  to  the  exercise  of  her  peculiar 
virtues  and  capabilities.  In  all  the  culture-lands 
bathed  by  the  waters  of  the  Mediterranean  thou- 
sands of  females,  very  frequently  of  the  highest 
classes,  enrolled  themselves  under  the  banner  of 
Jesus  and  proceeded  to  revolutionize  the  ethnic 
inner  Hfe  of  as  many  thousand  famihes. 

The  Roman  world,  as  we  shall  see,  was  tolerant 
of  a  greater  pubUc  freedom  for  women  than  the  old 
Greek  world.  The  latter,  indeed,  permitted  them 
to  belong  to  private  societies  of  succor,  insurance, 
amusement,  and  even  for  reUgious  purposes,  but  in 
the  former  they  had  conquered  still  greater  hberties. 
They  could  join  the  numerous  corporations  per- 
mitted and  registered  in  the  office  of  the  city  prefect, 
could  even  found  them  and  preside  over  them. 
They  were  not  forbidden  to  become  proselytes  of 
the  Jews,  nor  to  join  the  grotesque  cults  of  Asia. 
This  large  civil  and  rehgious  Hberty  of  woman  in  the 
early  imperial  epoch  was  of  the  utmost  benefit  to 
the  new  rehgion.  It  was  some  time  before  the  State 
suspected  what  Christianity  meant  for  Gentihsm, 
and  in  the  meantime  the  propaganda  had  been 
carried  on  with  unrelaxing  zeal  witMn  and  without 
the    Empire.    Everywhere    it    began    with    a    few 


164  WOMEN  IN  EARLY  CHRISTIAN  COMMUNITIES. 

chosen  families,  and  everywhere  the  females  of  these 
famiUes  appear  as  very  active  and  stirring  in  the 
fm-therance  of  its  interests.  They  make  long  jour- 
neys like  Phoebe;  they  give  abundantly  like  Lydia; 
they  teach  and  instruct  Uke  the  Phihppian  helpers 
of  Paul  and  Clement;  they  give  prestige  and  pohtical 
protection  hke  the  noble  dames  of  Thessalonica 
and  Beroea;  they  are  the  nuclei  of  combat  against 
heresy  Hke  Electa;  they  capture  the  heads  of  the 
great  Roman  famihes  hke  Tryphena  and  Tryphosa; 
they  provide  shelter  for  the  celebration  of  Mass  hke 
the  daughters  of  Pudens,  and  they  create  the  first 
landed  interests  of  the  Church  by  turning  over  to  her 
their  family  cemeteries  hke  Lucina  and  Priscilla  and 
Ceciha.  Columbus  discovered  a  new  world  in  the 
physical  order.  He  broke  down  the  mysterious 
ocean  waU,  and  gave  over  to  the  intellect  of  man 
things  hidden  from  the  hoariest  antiquity.  But 
Christianity  discovered  a  new  social  world  when  it 
brought  forth  woman  from  the  depths  of  her  degra- 
dation, enforced  or  voluntary,  and  placed  her  trans- 
muted, purified,  and  elevated  heart  among  the  new 
psychic  forces  destined  to  alter  profoundly  the  an- 
cient social  constitution  of  the  world. 

Outside  of  the  canonical  writings  of  the  New 
Testament,  the  earhest  record  of  the  human  Church 
is  the  noble  letter  written  to  the  Corinthians  by 


WOMEN  IN  EARLY  CHRISTIAN  COMMUNITIES.  165 

St.   Clement,   the  fourth  Bishop  of  Rome.    After 
referring  to  the  deaths  of  SS.  Peter  and  Paul,  he 
is   moved  at   once   to  glorify  certain  women  who 
had  suffered  cruel  and  unholy  insults  for  the  sake  of 
Christ,  but  had  safely  reached  the  goal  in  the  race  of 
faith  and  received  a  noble  reward,  feeble  though  they 
were  in  body.    Almost,  if  not  quite,  contemporary 
is  the  shepherd  of  Hermas,  in  which  earliest  picture 
of  Roman  Christian  society  Grapte  is  represented 
as  having  charge  of  all  the  widows  and  orphans  in 
the  city,  and  worthy  of  hearing  the  special  revelations 
of  the  shepherd  angel  to  the  ex-slave  Hermas. 

The  apocryphal  accounts  of  the  apostolic  journeys 
abound  with  traits  of  female  devotion  and  energy  in 
the  Christian   cause.    Though  they  are  very  fre- 
quently of  heretical  origin,  overlaid  and  colored  with 
the  thoughts  and  expressions  of  later  ages,  yet  it 
cannot  be  doubted  that  much  of  their  contents  is 
historical  truth.    Among  these  apocrypha  the  Acts 
of  St.  Paul  and  Thecla  are  pre-eminent  not  only  for 
their  pathos  and  great  age,  since  they  existed  already 
in  the  time  of  TertulHan,  but  also  for  the  vivid  pic- 
ture they  give  us  of  the  genesis  of  an  apostolic  con- 
version.   Thecla  is  a  heathen  maiden  of  Asia  Minor 
who  happens  to  overhear  the  preaching  of  St.  Paul 
on  virginity  and  straightway  accepts  the  Christian 
doctrine,  to  the  great  disgust  of  her  mother  and 


166  WOMEN  IN  EARLY  CHRISTIAN  COMMUNITIES. 

lover.  When  Paul  is  banished  from  the  city,  she  is 
condemned  to  be  burned  at  the  stake,  but  escapes 
miraculously  and  follows  the  Apostle  to  Antioch  in 
Syria,  where  she  is  again  made  to  undergo  great  suf- 
ferings for  Christ's  sake,  and  where  she  succeeds 
in  converting  a  noble  lady  in  whose  veins  flows  the 
blood  of  the  Ptolemies.  Thecla  distributes  among 
the  poor  the  wealth  which  her  royal  convert  show- 
ers on  her,  and  later  on  begins  the  Christian  apos- 
tolate  by  donning  male  garments  after  receiving 
from  St.  Paul  the  commission  to  teach.  Eventually 
she  takes  up  her  residence  at  Seleucia,  in  Asia  Minor, 
where  she  gathers 'about  her  a  body  of  Christian  vir- 
gins and  widows  and  founds  one  of  the  most  famous 
of  the  early  female  monasteries.  There  are  wild, 
incredible  details  in  this  legend,  yet  it  is  so  ancient 
and  corresponds  so  closely  to  the  New  Testament 
picture  of  the  early  Christian  women  that  we  cannot 
but  feel  that  there  is  in  it  a  solid  substratima  of 
truth,  and  that,  later  follies  and  exaggerations  aside, 
Thecla  is  a  true  portrait  of  the  devoted  Greek  women 
who  abandoned  all  for  Christ  and  His  pure  teachings, 
and  gave  up  their  lives  and  fortunes  to  the  fearless 
propaganda  of  the  new  doctrines. 


WOMAN   IN  PAGAN  ANTIQUITY: 

A  GREAT  Christian  writer  has  said  that  of  all  the 
victories  of  Christianity  there  is  none  more  salutary 
and  necessary,  and  at  the  same  time  none  more 
hardly  and  painfully  won,  than  that  which  it  has 
gained — gained  alone  and  everywhere — though  with 
a  daily  renewed  struggle,  over  the  unregulated  in- 
clinations which  stain  and  poison  the  fountains  of 
life.  Its  divinity  here  shows  itself  by  a  trium^ph 
which  no  rival  philosophy,  no  adverse  doctrine,  has 
ever  equalled  or  will  ever  aspire  to  equal. 

The  improvement  of  the  lot  of  woman  was 
surely  the  greatest  social  conquest  of  the  religion 
of  Christ — greater  even  than  the  alleviation  and 
abolishment  of  slavery.  On  it,  as  on  a  corner- 
stone, arose  the  new  Christian  society.  Aristotle 
long  since  remarked  that  wherever  the  institu- 
tions that  concern  the  female  sex  are  faulty,  the 
State  can  enjoy  only  a  very  imperfect  prosperity, 
for  the  family  relations  are    the  great  beams  on 

which    society    reposes,     and    whatever    tends    to 

167 


168  WOMAN  IN  PAGAN  ANTIQUITY. 

strengthen  them  makes  in  the  same  measure  for 
the  soUdity  of  the  social  framework  that  rests 
thereon.  This  fundamental  truth  had  become 
greatly  obscured  in  the  pre-Christian  ages.  With  a 
few  honorable  and  partial  exceptions  the  condition 
of  woman  was  everywhere  that  of  a  weak  and  de- 
graded being,  unequal  to  man,  existing  only  for  his 
pleasure  and  utility.  ''  The  Christian  doctrine/'  says 
Balmes  in  his ''European  Civilization,"  ''made  the 
existing  prejudices  against  woman  vanish  forever; 
it  made  her  equal  to  man  by  unity  of  origin  and 
destiny  and  in  the  participation  of  the  heavenly 
gifts;  it  enrolled  her  in  the  universal  brotherhood  of 
man  with  his  fellows  and  with  Jesus  Christ;  it  con- 
sidered her  as  the  child  of  God,  the  coheiress  of  Jesus 
Christ;  as  the  companion  of  man  and  no  longer  as 
a  slave  and  the  vile  instrument  of  pleasure.  Hence- 
forth that  philosophy  which  had  attempted  to  de- 
grade her  was  silenced;  that  unblushing  literature 
which  treated  woman  with  so  much  insolence  found 
a  check  in  the  Christian  precepts  and  a  reprimand 
no  less  eloquent  than  severe  in  the  dignified  manner 
in  which  all  the  ecclesiastical  writers,  in  imitation  of 
the  Scriptures,  expressed  themselves  on  woman." 
In  connection  with  the  new  and  improved  conditions 
of  woman  in  the  early  Christian  Church,  her  new  dig- 
nity and  responsible  offices,  and  the  consequent  social 


WOMAN  IN  PAGAN  ANTIQUITY.  169 

elevation  which  fell  to  her,  it  may  be  well  to  offer  as 
a  background  a  brief  retrospect  of  her  condition  in 
ancient  society. 

Nearly  all  the  ancient  systems  of  law  which  have 
come  down  to  us  exhibit  woman  in  a  dependent  po- 
sition. In  the  Mosaic  law  divorce  was  permitted 
to  the  husband  alone;  the  vow  of  a  woman  might 
be  disallowed  by  her  father  or  husband;  daughters 
could  only  inherit  in  the  absence  of  sons;  the  wife 
accused  of  adultery  might  be  tried  by  the  ordeal  of 
bitter  water.  The  Jew  was  allowed,  because  of  the 
hardness  of  his  heart,  to  practise  polygamy,  though 
in  the  post-exilic  times  this  custom  seems  to  have 
been  less  in  vogue.  Divorce  was  permitted  for  ex- 
tremely frivolous  reasons,  though  the  husband  was 
forbidden  to  take  back  the  divorced  woman  after  the 
death  of  her  second  husband  or  after  a  second  divorce. 
Women  were  not  allowed  to  take  any  active  share 
in  the  worship,  yet  they  took  part  in  religious  dances 
and  processions,  and  there  seems  to  have  been  re- 
ligious women  who  voluntarily  attached  themselves 
to  the  temple  service.  While  the  law  protected  the 
honor  and  estate  of  the  wife,  the  sensual  and  vicious 
Jew  only  too  often  yielded  to  all  the  vices  of  his 
abandoned  Syro-Phoenician  neighbors.  The  duties 
of  a  mother  and  a  housewife  were  the  chief  occu- 


170  WOMAN  IN  PAGAN  ANTIQUITY. 

pations  of  the  Jewish  woman;  the  harder  labors  of 
the  field  fell  seldom  upon  her.  Without  being  as 
high  as  her  Teutonic  or  Christian  sister,  the  Jewish 
woman  stood  on  a  higher  level  than  the  Greek. 
More  than  once  she  appears  in  the  annals  of  her  peo- 
ple as  a  deliverer  in  the  persons  of  Judith,  Esther, 
Deborah,  and  the  like. 

Much  light  has  been  thrown  on  the  place  of  woman 
in  ancient  Egypt  by  the  labors  of  modern  scholars 
in  deciphering  the  abundant  mass  of  legal  documents 
written  in  demotic  characters,  among  which  are  an- 
cient marriage  contracts  that  go  back  to  the  eighth 
century  B.C.  From  the  "Cours  du  droit  Egyptien'^ 
(Paris,  1884-86)  of  M.  Eugene  Revillout  we  learn 
that  woman  in  the  times  of  the  early  Egyptian  dy- 
nasties occupied  an  elevated  position,  could  con- 
tract as  the  equal  of  man,  acquire,  sell,  and  perform 
other  legal  transactions  without  male  intervention. 
Not  infrequently  the  husband  was  obliged  to  give 
her  a  mortgage  on  his  present  and  future  goods;  she 
could  enter  into  bilateral  contracts  with  him  at  the 
usurious  rate  of  30  per  cent.,  and  thus  eat  up  in  a 
few  years  all  his  estate.  Though  polygamy  was 
not  forbidden,  if  the  husband  took  another  wife  dur- 
ing the  lifetime  of  the  first  the  administration  of  all 
his  present  and  future  goods  passed  to  the  eldest  son 
by  the  first  marriage.    The  position  of  the  wife  was 


WOMAN  IN  PAGAN  ANTIQUITY.  171 

guaranteed  by  a  written  notarial  contract  of  a  re- 
ligious character.     On  the  ancient  Egyptian  monu- 
ments the  wife  or  '^housemistress"  is  seen  seated  by 
the  side  of  the  husband,  and  the  royal  succession 
could  pass  to  females,  who  were  treated  as  the  legiti- 
mate kings.    But  the  Macedonian  masters  of  Egypt 
eventually  restricted  the  ancient  Coptic  freedom  of 
the  women,  and  gradually  submitted  them,  in  the 
cities  at  least,  to  the  prevailing  Greek  laws  and 
usages.    The    history    of   woman   has    few  sadder 
pages  than  those  which  narrate  the  closing  years  of 
the  reign  of  the  Seleucides. 

The  Celtic  peoples  also  looked  upon  woman  as  in- 
ferior to  man.     Though  the  ancient  laws  of  Ireland 
have  been  much  modified  by  Christian  influences, 
the  romantic  literature  remains  yet  to  show  us  the 
estimation  of  the  female  sex  among  our  ancestors. 
M.  D'Arbois  de  Jubainville,  in  the  preface  to  the  fifth 
volume  of  his  "Cours  de  Litterature  Celtique,"  teUs 
us  that  there  were  two  kinds  of  marriage  in  ancient 
Erin,  one  temporary  and  for  a  year,  while  the  other 
was  permanent.     Marriage  was  at  all  times  a  sale  of 
the  woman  by  her  father,  or  in  his  stead  by  her  near- 
est male  relative.     The  children  might  be  put  to 
death  by  the  father  if  weakly  or  misshapen.     The 
wife  was  looked  on  much    as  the  farmer   considers 


172  WOMAN  IN  PAGAN  ANTIQUITY. 

his  sheep  or  cattle.  One  man  was  worth  seven  fe- 
male slaves  or  twenty-one  horned  cattle.  By  the 
law  of  gavelkind  they  could  inherit  only  in  the  ab- 
sence of  male  heirs.  Very  early  the  laws  of  dis- 
tress were  modified  in  their  favor.  The  causes  of 
divorce  were  many  and  trivial.  Women  were 
obliged  to  go  to  war,  and  one  of  the  tenderest  traits 
of  Irish  history  is  the  establishment  by  Adamnan  of 
the  "Law  of  the  Innocents/'  by  which  woman  and 
the  clergy  were  freed  from  military  service. 

In  his  valuable  introduction  to  O'Curry's'^  Lectures 
on  the  Manners  and  Customs  of  the  Ancient  Irish/' 
Mr.  W.  K.  Sullivan  has  collected  a  number  of  texts 
to  show  that  among  the  ancient  Irish  the  office  of 
judge  was  held  occasionally  by  women.  These  were 
perhaps  akin  to  the  mysterious  and  influential  Druid- 
esses  of  Gaul  and  the  Teutonic  prophetesses.  Some 
faint  trace  of  these  Matriarchs  or  "Women  of  the 
Judgments"  has  come  down  to  us  in  the  "sover- 
eign lady  of  the  thoughts  "  of  the  mediaeval  knight 
and  the  female  judges  in  the  Courts  of  Love. 

Aristotle  is  witness,  in  his  Poetics,  that  among 
barbarian  peoples  woman  and  the  slave  were  on  the 
same  footing,  and  whoever  takes  the  pains  to  read 
Westermarck's  "History  of  Human  Marriage"  (Lon- 
don, 1892)  will  find  collected  there  a  mass  of  details 
from  the  history  of  ancient  and  modern  uncivilized 


WOMAN  IN  PAGAN  ANTIQUITY.  173 

peoples    that    amply  justify  the   assertion    of   the 
Greek  philosopher.     Among  the  peoples  of  the  ex- 
treme Orient  woman  has  always  occupied  an  inferior 
position.     It  is  not  necessary  to  indicate  here  what 
degradation  Islam  has  brought  to  woman.     Let  us 
look  at  the  ^^  Sacred  Books  of  the  East'^  in  the  splen- 
did translation  brought  out  under  the  supervision 
of  Max  Mueller.     Everywhere  in  Persia,  India,  and 
China  woman  is  a  being  of  inferior  quality,  existing 
only  for  the  pleasure  and  comfort  of  man,  and  ob- 
taining her  salvation  only  through  him.     According 
to  the  '' Institutes  of  Vishnu''  a  woman  cannot  be  a 
witness  and  cannot  execute  a  legal  document.     Her 
duty  is  to  live  in  harmony  with  her  husband,  pre- 
pare his  food,  to  collect  wealth,  to  be  careful  and 
saving  in  her  habits,  to  lead  a  reserved  life,  and  never 
undertake  to  act  by  herself.     She  is  forever  under 
the  guardianship  of  some  male,   as,   indeed,   were 
women  in  the  Scandinavian  kingdoms  until  modern 
times.     Her  only  hope  of  eternal  bliss  is  in  the  ab- 
solute subjection  to  her  husband.     Add  to  this  that 
her  life  was  filled  with  a  thousand  superstitious  prac- 
tices.    Though  these  laws  say  that  she  is  to  be  hon- 
ored by  the  family,  especially  on  holidays  and  festi- 
vals, and  that  the  curse  of  an  ill-treated  woman 
wreaks  ruin,  yet,  according  to  them,  she  is  evidently 
only  a  higher  servant  of  man,  whose  interests  are 


174  WOMAN  IN  PAGAN  ANTIQUITY, 

paramount  at  all  times.  The  "  Laws  of  Manu"  (fifth 
century  b-.c.)  are  the  most  ancient  code  of  Hindoo 
jurisprudence  we  possess.  They  represent  woman 
as  unfit  for  freedom,  a  wrathful,  dishonest,  malicious 
being,  whose  mutable  temper  and  natural  heartless- 
ness  make  it  necessary  to  keep  her  in  dependence 
night  and  day.  ''In  childhood  a  female  must  be 
subject  to  her  father,  in  youth  to  her  husband,  when 
her  lord  is  dead  to  her  sons — a  woman  must  never 
be  independent.  .  .  .  Though  destitute  of  virtue,  or 
seeking  pleasure  elsewhere,  or  devoid  of  good  quali- 
ties, a  husband  must  be  constantly  worshipped  as  a 
god  by  a  faithful  wife.  .  .  .  Through  their  passion 
for  men,  through  their  mutable  temper,  through  their 
natural  heartlessness  they  become  disloyal  towards 
their  husbands,  however  carefully  they  may  be 
guarded  in  this  world.  Knowing  their  disposition, 
which  the  Lord  of  creatures  laid  in  them  at  the  crea- 
tion, to  be  such,  every  man  should  most  strenuously 
exert  himself  to  guard  them." 

One  of  the  weakest  sides  of  the  old  Hellenic  world 
was  the  low  view  it  took  of  the  nature  and  calling  of 
woman.  We  have  no  perfect  record  of  her  state  in 
Hellenic  society,  but  such  details  as  can  be  collected 
from  the  ancient  writers  and  the  monuments  may 
be  found  in  the  ''Heathenism  and  Judaism''  of  Doel- 


WOMAN  IN  PAGAN  ANTIQUITY.  175 

linger  and  in  the  antiquarian  romance  of  ''Charicles" 
by  Professor  Becker.  She  was  httle  esteemed  and 
treated  as  a  child,  shut  out  from  social  life  and  con- 
fined to  the  women's  apartments,  or  gynoeconitis, 
which  was  often  locked  by  the  husband  on  his  de- 
parture. He  rarely  ate  with  his  family,  and  if  vis- 
itors came  the  wife  dared  not  appear.  Special  offi- 
cers were  deputed  to  look  after  the  women.  They 
could  not  go  out  unaccompanied,  and  in  some  cities 
durst  not  stir  abroad  until  sunset.  They  were  a 
lower  order  of  beings,  neglected  by  nature  in  heart 
and  intellect,  prone  to  evil,  only  fitted  for  the  pleas- 
ure of  the  lords  of  creation.  Greek  literature 
abounds  with  mockery  and  persiflage  of  woman,  and 
this  tone  is  observable  not  only  in  the  mysogonist 
Euripides  and  the  comedian  Menander,  but  even  in 
the  grave  philosopher  Aristotle,  who  deliberately 
rates  her  as  man's  inferior,  more  than  a  slave  or  a 
child,  yet  without  any  of  the  necessary  political  vir- 
tues—neither courageous  nor  just.  Where  her  dower 
was  great  or  her  natural  character  strong  she  might 
create  a  more  tolerable  position  for  herself;  But 
such  cases  were  few.  We  rarely  hear  of  the  Greek 
woman  in  political  life.  She  was  legally  a  minor  for 
life,  could  conclude  no  bargain  or  transaction  on  her 
own  account.  Whatever  a  man  did  by  the  counsel 
or  request  of  a  woman  was  void  of  legal  value. 


176  WOMAN  IN  PAGAN  ANTIQUITY. 

There  was  no  provision  for  her  education — it  was 
given  by  the  mother  and  consisted  of  the  merest  do- 
mestic instruction,  with  some  knowledge  of  music 
and  dancing.  The  mind  was  undeveloped,  for  all 
public  intercourse  was  forbidden  by  law  or  custom. 
The  Greek  maiden  up  to  the  day  of  her  marriage 
lived  in  the  utmost  seclusion,  and  from  thenceforth 
was  busied  with  the  cares  of  the  household — the 
clothes,  stores  and  kitchens,  the  children,  the  slaves 
and  the  sick.  She  was  thrown  back  on  her  own 
thoughts  and  on  the  company  of  her  still  weaker  de- 
pendents. Both  Aristotle  and  Sophocles  were  of 
opinion  that 

"A  modest  silence  is  the  honor  of  woman." 

And  Pericles  was  of  the  opinion  that  the  chief  care 
of  Athenian  women  ought  to  be  that  neither  good 
nor  evil  should  be  spoken  of  them — utter  self-efface- 
ment. The  condition  of  woman  at  Rome  was  much 
superior  to  that  which  she  held  in  the  Greek  lands. 
We  are  not  speaking  here  of  the  multitude  of  female 
slaves  whose  unions  the  law  did  not  recognize.  But 
for  the  free-born  woman  marriage  meant  a  life-long 
union,  with  mutual  joys  and  sorrows  and  equal  ob- 
ligations. She  had  a  share  in  all  that  belonged  to 
the  husband  and  participated  in  certain  religious 
acts.    She  was  absolute  mistress  of  the  household, 


WOMAN  IN  PAGAN  ANTIQUITY.  177 

the  instructress  of  the  children  and  the  guardian  of 
the  domestic  honor.  In  the  later  times  of  the  re- 
public she  could  appear  in  court  and  give  evidence 
or  offer  her  intercession.  She  visited  freely  the  thea- 
tres, banquets,  and  baths.  The  original  jurispru- 
dence had  been  very  severe,  however,  in  her  regard. 
She  was  by  marriage  completely  in  the  power  of  the 
husband,  only  his  daughter  before  the  law.  He 
might  punish  or  even  slay  her  with  slight  formality. 
The  ancient  laws  of  Rome  contemplated  for  her,  like 
the  laws  of  India  and  Scandinavia,  a  life-long  guar- 
dianship. But  in  time  she  avoided  both  the  hus- 
band's power  and  the  agnatic  control  by  successive 
favorable  interpretations  of  the  old  laws,  and  at  the 
time  of  Christ  had  almost  completely  emancipated 
herself  from  any  male  control  of  her  person  or  for- 
tune. Her  influence  was  felt  in  the  imperial  house- 
hold, the  army  and  the  public  administration.  She 
was  dictatrix  of  fashion  and  entered  freely  all  cor- 
porations. Then  began  that  gigantic  debauch  which 
fills  those  pages  of  history  that  narrate  the  decay  of 
the  republican  and  the  rise  of  imperial  Rome.  The 
Roman  women  were  the  mistresses  of  the  masters  of 
the  world.  The  treasures  of  the  vanquished  lay  at 
their  feet  and  every  powerful  passion  found  a  facile 
satisfaction.  The  tributes  of  nations  were  squan- 
dered on  their  adornment,  and  some  writers  trace 


178  WOMAN  IN  PAGAN  ANTIQUITY. 

one  cause  of  the  later  financial  crash  under  Diocle- 
tian to  the  vast  sums  of  gold  shipped  to  the  Orient 
for  rare  jewels  and  stuffs.  Divorces  became  the  or- 
der of  the  day.  Many  Roman  dames  counted  their 
years  by  their  marriages.  The  population  decreased 
and  the  public  morality  was  at  its  lowest  ebb.  It 
was  in  vain  that  the  emperors  attempted  to  stem 
the  growing  evils — the  degradation  of  woman  had 
gone  too  far.  The  names  of  Clodia,  Julia,  Messalina, 
recall  the  most  shameful  pages  of  the  history  of  mor- 
als. Such  writers  as  Friedlaender  and  Baudrillart 
have  described  this  glittering  period  of  decay  with  a 
masterly  touch,  but  nothing  can  surpass  the  fierce, 
dark,  suppressed  wrath  of  the  contemporary  aristo- 
crat Tacitus  as  he  depicts  for  us  the  sublimely  wicked 
orgies  of  the  female  world  of  his  time.  The  absence 
of  any  serious  instruction,  the  idle  futile  life  at  such 
splendid  seaside  resorts  as  Baise,  the  shameless  ex- 
cesses of  the  theatres,  the  obscene  mimic  plays,  the 
world  of  Oriental  singers,  dancers,  and  jugglers  who 
filled  the  city,  the  cruelty  of  the  gladiatorial  games, 
the  darkened  consciences  of  the  men  who  admin- 
istered the  world  from  the  Palatine  hill,  the  count- 
less mob  of  slaves  and  flatterers,  had  all  combined  to 
utterly  destroy  the  female  character  at  Rome  when 
the  light  of  the  Gospel  first  shed  its  mild  beams  on  the 
most  glorious  and  most  wicked  of  the  seats  of  men. 


WOMAN  IN  PAGAN  ANTIQUITY.  179 

Yet  it  was  in  that  very  city  of  Rome  and  among 
those  same  Roman  matrons  that  Jesus  Christ  was 
soon  to  make  his  most  brilHant  conquests.  As  though 
they  had  touched  the  very  depths  of  the  moral 
abyss,  a  reaction  had  been  setting  in  within  the 
higher  circles  of  the  Roman  female  world.    The  spir- 
itual teachings  of  Judaism  and  its  simple   direct 
monotheism  had  won  many  a  woman's  heart,  sick 
of    gold  and  power  and  blood,   thirsting  for  the 
higher  goods  of  life.    They  were  not  strangers  to 
philosophy.    The   books   of   Plato   and  the    Stoics 
were  often  noticed  on  the  silken  cushions  of  their 
luxurious  couches.    Outside  those  who  were  swept 
away  in  the  mad  swirl  of  society  were  many  who 
did  not  belie  the  grave  religiosity  of  the  ancient 
Roman  woman,  who  followed  every  new  light  and 
prayed  now  to  Venus  and  Diana,  now  to  Isis  and 
Cybele,  until  they  recognized  in  the  teachings  of  the 
crucified  Jew  the  celestial  balm  for  their  agitated 
and  blindly  suffering  hearts.    From  that  time  they 
threw  themselves  with  the  most  splendid  enthusiasm 
into  the  work  of  Christian  prosel3rtism.     At  every 
step  in  the  early  history  of  the  Roman  Church  we 
are  struck  by  the  figures  of  grave  devoted  matrons, 
whose    houses    are    turned    into    churches,    whose 
family  sepulchres  are  made  burial  grounds  for  the 
Christian    multitude,    who    lavish    their    enormous 


180  WOMAN  m  PAGAN  ANTIQUITY. 

wealth  to  support  poor  Christians  at  the  ends  of  the 
earth;  who  are  prodigal  of  self-sacrifice,  and  co- 
operate in  modest  but  active  devotion  to  rear  the 
City  of  God  within  the  City  of  Antichrist. 

In  the  pages  of  Tacitus  we  read  of  the  retirement 
from  society  of  Pomponia  Grsecina,  and  modern 
criticism  has  recognized  in  her  one  of  the  first  Ro- 
man converts  to  Christianity.  Among  those  of 
Csesar's  household  of  whom  St.  Paul  speaks  with 
respectful  tenderness  were  two  women,  bound  to 
Vespasian  and  Domitian  by  close  ties  of  blood,  the 
two  Flavise  Domitillse.  The  noble  Petronilla,  of 
the  same  Aurelian  stock,  was  another  member  of 
the  gentle  sweet-tempered  band.  The  mysterious 
Lucina,  whose  memory  is  yet  so  fresh  at  Rome, 
was  another,  perhaps  a  guiding  spirit,  the  strange 
name,  no  doubt,  hiding  some  prouder  patronymic. 
The  archaeologist  gets  vague  glimpses  of  other  noble 
dames  whom  the  sublime  simplicity,  sweetness,  and 
fulness  of  Christ's  teachings  had  won,  but  he  does 
not  talk  of  them  to  an  incredulous  world  until  he  has 
the  irrefragable  proofs  in  hand.  He  believes  that 
the  Balbi,  the  Probi,  the  Bassi,  the  Glabriones  were 
in  part  already  Christian,  and  the  stones  of  the 
catacombs  are  yielding  up  the  evidences — ^their  own 
Christian  epitaphs. 


ST.  AGNES  OF  ROME.* 

There  is  something  astounding,  overwhelming,  iif 
the  reflection  that  sixteen  hundred  years  after  her 
death  the  memory  of  a  gentle  maiden  of  old  Rome 
should  yet  be  a  potent  spiritual  watchword  through- 
out the  world;  should  suffice,  for  example,  to  arrest 
the  thoughts  and  move  the  hearts  of  a  great  multi- 
tude of  men  and  women  in  the  very  core  of  this 
newest  and  greatest  of  world-cities.  The  imagination 
is  confused  and  thrown  back  upon  itself  when  it  tries 
to  seize,  on  the  one  hand,  the  spectacle  of  the  Golden 
City  by  the  Tiber,  so  long  the  royal  mistress  of  the 
habitable  or  civilized  world  of  antiquity,  and,  on  the 
other,  the  youthful  representative  of  triumphant 
democracy,  exulting  in  the  sense  of  destiny,  glow- 
ing with  consciousness  of  power,  throbbing  with  a 
thousand  mighty  energies — without  a  doubt  the 
highest  expression  of  organized  humanity  since  the 
sceptre  fell  from  the  aged  hand  of  Rome  and  the 
eagles  of  victory  fled  from  her  tottering  banners. 

*  Sermon  preached  in  St.  Agnes'  Church,  New  York,  Jan- 
uary 26,  1902. 

181 


182  ST.  AGNES  OF  ROME. 

Indeed,  it  is  a  long  cry  from  the  newest  to  the 
oldest;  from  the  head  of  the  vast  procession  of  civ- 
ilization to  the  far  horizon  where  it  was  first  organ- 
ized and  set  in  motion.  As  we  gaze  on  the  scene  the 
mind  is  troubled  by  infinite  comparison  and  suggestion 
and  the  heart  is  equally  solicited  by  considerations 
of  the  most  far-reaching  and  pregnant  character. 

What  is  there  in  common  between  the  latest 
phase  of  human  society  and  that  terrible  decade  of 
expiring  polytheism  when  a  half  dozen  barbarian 
emperors  of  Rome  disputed,  for  the  last  time,  the 
onward  march  of  Christianity?  It  would  seem  that 
in  the  multitude  of  changes  that  have  followed  one 
another  since  those  decisive  days,  nothing  could  have 
remained  the  same.  States  and  cultures,  languages 
and  literatures,  have  driven  one  another  off  the 
stage  without  ceasing;  the  stage  of  life  itself  has 
been  widened  beyond  the  wildest  suspicions  of  the 
ancients.  Time  and  space,  the  common  equip- 
ment of  humanity,  have  no  longer  the  same  meaning 
as  in  the  days  of  St.  Agnes. 

Though  it  is  a  trite,  still  it  is  a  true  observation, 
that  only  one  institution — the  Catholic  Church — 
remains  to  bind  us  with  the  old  Roman  state. 

This  it  does  by  its  long  history  of  teaching  and 
governing,  its  continuous  and  conscious  self-identity, 
its  genuine  and  effective  love  of  our  common  human- 


ST.  AGNES   OF  ROME.  183 

ity,  its  unremitting  efforts  to  uplift  to  a  high  level 
every  estate  and  condition  of  that  humanity.  It 
is  the  only  cosmopolitan  force  that  has  survived  the 
revolutions  of  nigh  two  thousand  years.  In  the 
light  of  this  indisputable  fact  we  may  well  believe 
the  inmiemorial  contention  of  Christian  philoso- 
phers and  historians  that  the  Roman  Empire  itself 
was  raised  up  by  God  to  prepare  the  way  for  a  reli- 
gion that  should  embrace  all  men,  and  dominate 
all  time,  and  overcome  all  limitations  of  space,  all 
human  barriers  of  whatever  kind. 

For  that  reason  we  rightly  maintain  that  the  glo- 
ries and  the  humiliations  of  this  religion,  its  victories 
and  its  defeats,  its  progress  and  its  decay,  its  diffi- 
culties and  its  problems,  are  of  interest  to  all  mankind. 
They  are  all  pages  from  the  story  of  a  society  that 
transcends,  now  as  then,  all  common  conditions  of 
mankind,  and  offers  on  earth  a  weak  but  real  image 
of  that  heavenly  city  where  there  is  no  more  history, 
for  there  is  no  more  time;  no  more  discord,  for  all 
is  perfect  love;  no  more  wrong,  for  the  Sun  of  Jus- 
tice is  its  light;  no  more  ambition,  for  the  vision  of 
the  All-Holy  and  the  AU-Good  fills  up  the  measure 
of  each  one's  desire.  Alone,  the  Catholic  religion, 
by  the  conquest  of  aU  hearts,  has  planted  therein 
this  idea  of  a  common  humanity,  has  elevated  to 
the  power  of  universal  forces  a  passion  for  the  ab- 


184  ST.  AGNES  OF  ROME. 

stract  right,  a  living  irresistible  enthusiasm  for  good- 
ness, a  sure  and  permanent  public  opinion  that  eats 
away  injustice  like  an  acid.  Before  she  appeared  on 
this  earth,  noble  intellects  had  dimly  seen  the  out- 
luies  of  goodness  and  truth,  had  even  set  down  in 
immortal  Greek  and  Latin  ideals  of  justice  and 
sanctity,  had  vaguely  grasped  the  notion  of  a  com- 
mon humanity  where  equality  should  reign  and 
earthly  happiness  should  be  absolute.  But  these 
were  the  Utopian  dreams  of  a  few  thinkers  who 
walked  apart  from  the  rest  of  men,  and  their 
thoughts  were  cold,  inefficient,  sterile,  like  the 
efforts  of  a  sorely  wounded  man  to  better  his 
condition.  With  inevitable  rapidity  the  whole 
situation  changed  after  the  death  of  Jesus  Christ. 
At  once  there  seemed  to  be  let  loose  among 
men  a  tide,  as  it  were,  of  personal  goodness  that 
made  its  way  into  every  condition  of  ancient 
life.  Within  a  hundred  years  of  His  death  there 
could  be  seen  in  every  city  of  the  Empire  men 
and  women  whose  lives  would  have  ravished  the 
admiration  of  Pythagoras  and  Socrates.  By  mul- 
titudes they  accepted  and  lived  out  in  their  daily 
lives  sublime  formulae  of  conduct  that  were  lately 
the  despair  of  the  most  learned  and  virtuous. 
Mysteriously,  but  surely  and  easily,  the  secret  of  a 
just  holy  and  upright  life  had  been  found. 


ST.  AGNES  OF  ROME.  185 

Some  sweet,  strong,  healing  light  had  burst  in 
upon  all  ranks  and  estates  of  mankind.  Men  and 
women  were  everywhere  rising  from  a  spiritual 
death  and  walking  freely  and  joyously  in  a  con- 
scious restoration  to  life  and  well-being.  So  it  went 
on  for  centuries,  without  boastfulness  or  arrogance, 
but  also  without  flinching — from  talking  about  a 
perfect  life  men  and  women  had  begun  to  live  that 
perfect  life. 

In  the  light  of  our  transmuted  views  and  opinions 
one  would  think  that  they  should  have  met  with 
universal  admiration,  yet  it  was  the  contrary. 
The  annals  of  history  do  not  record  any  wilder,  more 
general  and  unreasoning  opposition  of  man  to  man 
than  the  story  of  the  first  three  centm-ies  of  the 
Catholic  religion.  Its  pious.  God-fearing,  law-abid- 
ing, innocent  members  were  hunted  like  wild 
beasts,  now  by  the  mobs  of  great  cities,  now  by  the 
state  itself,  now  by  the  powerful  and  numerous  Jew- 
ries of  the  time,  now  by  their  own  families  and  rela- 
tives. To  be  a  Christian  was  to  live  an  object  of 
contumely  and  hatred,  to  walk  always  in  the  shadow 
of  a  sudden  and  cruel  death,  an  outlaw  in  the  society 
that  had  cast  down  all  barriers  between  men,  an 
exile  in  a  commimity  of  100,000,000  of  citizens. 

Every  engine  of  force,  every  form  of  social  com- 
pulsion, every  influence  of  literature,  every  imag- 


186  ST.  AGNES  OF  ROME. 

inable  constraint  of  a  penal  character,  was  set 
in  motion  to  overcome  these  Christian  men  and 
women  of  long  ago,  so  long  ago  that  the  ordinary 
imagination  reaches  thither  with  difficulty. 

But  force  and  complusion  were,  for  the  first  time 
in  human  history,  insufficient.  In  the  long  and 
awful  appeal  to  public  opinion  the  Christian  virtues 
at  last  won  the  day  as  against  the  political  virtues 
of  Greece  and  Rome.  The  mild  and  gentle  figure 
of  the  Good  Shepherd  was  set  up  in  New  Rome  that 
consecrated  the  victory,  and  in  the  Old  Rome  the 
cross  of  Jesus  Christ  replaced  the  Roman  lance  in 
the  hand  of  Constantino. 

The  prisons  gave  up  their  Christian  inmates;  the 
executioners  laid  down  their  cruel  irons;  the  mines 
of  Spain  and  Africa  and  Palestine  sent  forth  from 
their  cold  recesses  the  followers  of  Jesus.  East  and 
west  the  deserts  and  the  mountains  and  the  islands 
of  the  seas  swelled  the  processions  of  men  and  women 
who  returned  in  multitudes  to  their  homes,  singing 
canticles  of  joy  and  gratitude. 

"Sound  the  loud  timbrel  o'er  Egypt's  dark  sea, 
Jehovah  has  triumphed,  His  people  are  free." 

It  was  the  first  general  conflict  of  the  Catholic 
Church  with  the  power  and  spirit  of  the  world.  And 
if  you  reflect  a  moment  on  all  that  it  meant  for  her 
you  will  not  wonder  that  she  cherishes  dearly  the 


ST.  AGNES  OF  ROME.  187 

names  of  all  the  great  combatants  who  fell  on  her 
side,  that  for  her  they  are  dearer  than  the  heroes  of 
Marathon  or  Thermopylae;  that  for  them  she  finds 
forever  fresh  accents  of  praise  that  surpass  the  elo- 
quence even  of  Pericles.  Henceforth  it  is  as  clear 
as  the  sun  in  heaven  that  there  are  two  orders — the 
spiritual  and  the  temporal,  and  that  the  latter  can- 
not force  the  former,  cannot  extirpate  or  assimilate 
it.  The  precept  of  Jesus  Christ,  "Give  unto  Caesar 
the  things  that  are  Caesar's,  and  unto  God  the  things 
that  are  God's,"  is  now  written  by  Caesar  on  the 
books  of  his  own  law.  At  last  there  is  an  impreg- 
nable rock  of  personal  freedom,  the  conscience  of 
man  and  woman,  a  fortress  conquered  for  humanity 
by  every  frail  girl  who  laid  her  head  on  the  block  for 
love  of  Jesus,  by  every  noble  matron  who  renounced 
the  good  things  of  earth  to  join  in  heaven  the  com- 
pany of  the  blessed.  When  it  came  to  that  pass  that 
in  every  city  of  the  Roman  world  women  and  chil- 
dren of  every  rank  sought  death  with  equal  avidity, 
it  was  clear  to  all  right-thinking  Roman  men  that 
the  bases  of  their  state  were  long  since  rotten  and  that 
its  ruin  or  its  transformation  was  at  hand. 

The  martyrs  had  died  for  Jesus  Christ  as  God; 
thereby  they  overthrew  polytheism,  by  the  consent 
of  all  an  inferior  and  degrading  religion  and  the  root 
of  all  superstition. 


188  ST.    AGNES  OF  ROME. 

The  civilized  world  had  henceforth  a  correct  idea 
of  God  whereby  to  regulate  the  relations  of  man- 
kind with  its  Creator  and  Preserver.  The  martyrs 
died  for  the  divinity  of  Jesus  Christ  and  for  the 
reality  of  His  human  nature.  Thereby  they  were 
for  the  Church  the  highest  and  for  all  time  the  most 
efficient  witness  of  the  fundamental  doctrines  of 
Christianity.  By  their  death  the  ancient  world  was 
cleared  of  a  thousand  horrid  bloody  customs,  insti- 
tutions, and  public  vices.  And  if  the  eyes  of  the 
more  spiritual  and  mystic  Christians  were  not  des- 
tined ever  to  see  the  New  Jerusalem  on  earth,  they  did 
see  the  triumph  of  truth  and  virtue  and  the  downfall 
of  oppression  and  hypocrisy.  At  last  the  taunt  of 
the  pagan  was  silenced — ^the  God  of  the  Christians 
did  move  to  succor  them.  At  Saxa  Rubra  by  the 
Milvian  Bridge,  near  Rome,  the  sun  went  down  on 
one  world,  the  world  of  paganism,  and  rose  on  an- 
other, the  world  of  Christianity.  As  time  wore  on, 
the  Church  saw  clearly  that  her  own  history  was  one 
of  the  surest  means  of  consolation  and  guidance. 
The  era  of  the  martjn-s  was  like  the  first  epoch  of  her 
vast  career,  and  furnished  her  with  an  absolute  and 
certain  proof  that  the  Holy  Spirit  was  with  her,  that 
Jesus  Christ  was  truly  living  and  reigning  in  the 
world,  that  the  divine  Father  had  not  forgotten  His 
children  even  in  the  furnace  of  tribulation. 


ST.  AGNES  OF  ROME.  189 

Those  three  centuries  of  severest  trial  stand  out 
henceforth  in  the  life  of  the  Church  as  a  corner-stone 
of  fact,  a  bed-rock  of  conviction,  a  "pillar  and 
foundation"  of  her  confidence  in  the  final  success 
of  her  mission,  her  teaching,  her  ideals. 

After  all  every  martyrdom  was  in  its  own  true 
way  a  repetition  of  the  sublime  sacrifice  of  Jesus 
Christ  on  Calvary.  Jesus  Christ  was  the  king  of 
the  martyrs,  and  His  death  the  result  of  the  union 
of  the  powers  of  the  world — Herod  and  Pilate  and 
Caiphas — to  repress  the  only  religious  teaching  that 
could  unite  all  mankind  in  an  intimate  and  benefi- 
cent way  with  the  common  Father  of  all.  With 
the  Christian  martyrs  began  that  wonderful  Imita- 
tion of  Christ  that  since  .hen  has  never  failed  to 
win  numberless  adherents.  It  was  along  this  pain- 
ful way  that  Jesus  drew  upward  to  Himself  His  first 
adherents.  When  wc  open  the  blood-stained  pages 
of  their  trials  and  deaths,  it  is  the  figure  of  Jesus  that 
dominates  the  scene.  For  His  name  they  die ;  usu- 
ally they  need  only  utter  the  one  word,  "I  am  a 
Christian,"  to  seal  their  doom. 

In  the  prisons  His  Passion  is  read  to  them  by  the 
servants  of  the  Church,  His  encouragements  to  firm- 
ness are  repeated.  His  example  set  before  them.  On 
the  way  to  the  scene  of  death  they  chant  His  power 
and  glory,  His  beauty  and  goodness.    Many  times 


190  ST.  AGNES  OF  ROME. 

He  appears  to  them  in  their  noisome  dungeons  that 
for  the  moment  ^are  transformed  into  halls  of  light 
and  joy.  In  the  heart-rending  agonies  of  execution 
they  often  fall  into  an  ecstatic  state  and  pass  away 
sustained  by  the  immediate  presence  of  their  Lord 
and  Master. 

The  ignorant  and  dull  become  quick-witted  in  their 
replies  to  the  great  and  learned  of  Rome;  the  timid 
and  the  humble  are  filled  with  a  vigor  and  boldness 
that  more  than  aught  else  troubled  the  masterful 
authorities  of  a  city  that  had  hitherto  broken  every 
resistance,  and  now  stood  puzzled  and  worried 
before  this  new  line  of  opposition  that  defied  all  her 
ancient  and  approved  arts  of  government. 

Amid  the  gasping  and  the  moaning  of  the  victims 
the  Holy  Spirit  often  seized  the  hearts  of  the  by- 
standers and  impelled  the  nobler  among  them  to 
step  forward  and  tak«:  the  places  of  the  dying,  pro- 
claiming that  they  beli'^\xd  in  the  truth  and  useful- 
ness of  a  religion  whose  followers  were  ready  to  die 
for  it.  For  ten  who  gave  up  their  lives  as  many 
more  went  down  into  the  arena  and  emphasized  the 
new  and  revolutionizing  truth  that  any  human 
government  must  henceforth  be  ready  to  perish  in  a 
sustained  conflict  with  genuine  faith  in  Christ  Jesus, 
Son  of  God,  Saviour  of  men,  risen  from  the  dead, 
reigning  in  heaven  at  the  right  hand  of  the  Father. 


ST.   AGNES  OF  ROME,  191 

Finally,  their  precious  remains  were  laid  away  in 
the  deep  and  kind  bosom  of  mother  earth,  with  the 
psalms,  chants,  and  prayers  that  we  yet  repeat  over 
our  dead.  More  frequently  their  name  and  fame 
were  left  to  God— why  imitate  the  pompous  inscrip- 
tions of  those  pagans  above  ground?  Here  in  these 
dark,  silent  halls  the  angels  would  easily  find  their 
own.  At  most  a  rude  line  or  two,  some  symbol  of 
faith  and  hope,  like  an  anchor  or  a  dove  or  a  palm- 
branch,  some  fond  word  of  a  parent,  brother,  or  sis- 
ter, perhaps  a  lover— Farewell,  sweet  soul  I  Fare- 
well, most  dear  companion!  No  note  of  hatred  or 
rancor,  no  legacy  of  revenge,  no  phrase  of  cynicism 
or  pessimism.  These  were  precisely  the  enemies 
that  they  had  worsted,  each  one,  in  his  or  her  mem- 
orable duel  with  the  crowned  and  sceptred  Death 
above  them. 

And  when  it  was  all  over,  when  the  bloody  work 
of  the  day  was  done,  the  court-room  closed,  the  law- 
yers and  executioners  gone  to  their  rest,  and  the 
laboring  spirit  freed  from  its  maimed  and  broken 
shell,  faithful  men  wrote  down  the  sublime  story  and 
bedewed  the  parchment  with  tears,  not  of  sorrow, 
but  of  joy;  for  they  wrote  no  story  of  death,  but  of 
birth,  rebirth  in  Christ  Jesus— the  Natalis  dies,  or 
birthday  of  the  martyr. 

The  following  Sunday  the  renmant  of  the  Church, 


192  ST.  AGNES  OF  ROME. 

like  the  survivors  of  a  great  storm,  gathered  in  their 
meeting-place  and  at  the  appointed  time  there  rose 
up  the  deacon  of  the  little  body.  He  read  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  martyr's  death  and  note  was  taken  of 
the  day,  and  the  bishop  from  his  seat  gave  due 
praise  in  the  name  of  the  community  and  urged  all 
present  to  equal  steadfastness,  for  sin  was  abundant 
and  scandal  frequent,  and  life  was  short  and  uncer- 
tain, and  they  bore  about  the  great  treasure  of  faith 
and  constancy  in  vessels  of  fragile  clay. 

Doubtless  more  than  one  will  wonder  what  could 
sustain  men  and  women  in  such  incredible  sufferings. 
Their  love  of  Jesus  Christ  was  very  personal  and  im- 
mediate— they  were  His  by  a  baptism  that  had 
made  a  deep  impression  on  them,  since  it  cut  away 
and  destroyed  the  awful  burdens  of  the  past.  He 
was  to  them  the  pure  Sun  of  Justice  in  a  world  of 
obscenity,  sin,  and  oppression  of  every  kind.  He  was 
the  sole  object  worthy  of  affection  to  those  who  had 
tasted  of  all  the  world's  pleasures,  but  in  vain,  and 
found  the  soul's  thirst  quenched  by  Him  alone.  A 
multitude  of  men  and  women  folt  their  state,  with  all 
its  greatness,  hastening  to  decay  and  ruin,  and  them- 
selves with  it.  In  the  possession  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
of  God  they  found  the  assurance  of  personal  salva- 
tion amid  circumstances  that  everywhere  threat- 
ened the  end  of  all  things.     Daily  they  read  the 


ST.  AGNES  OF  ROME.  193 

Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  the  New  Testament.  In 
the  latter  they  foimd  the  absolute  exemplar  of  their 
lives,  the  solution  of  the  moral  or  ethical  problems 
of  their  times,  the  proof  and  evidence  of  faith  in 
Jesus  Christ,  a  mysterious  fountain  of  graces  flowing 
from  the  lips  of  that  divine  Master.  They  found  in 
it  the  warrant  of  the  mysterious  banquet  where  they 
replenished  their  spiritual  strength  and  felt  them- 
selves intimately  one  with  the  risen  and  triumphant 
Christ.  A  sense  of  joy  and  victory,  spiritual  indeed, 
but  habitual,  pervaded  their  lives  and  made  them 
more  often  dwellers  in  the  world  of  heaven  than  in 
that  of  earth. 

Did  they  read  daily  the  Psalms  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment? In  spite  of  the  rude  semi-popular  translations 
into  the  Greek  and  Latin  of  the  streets  and  the  pub- 
lic places,  the  shops  and  the  wharves,  they  found 
therein  the  person  of  Jesus  Christ  described  in  ad- 
vance by  the  Royal  Singer  of  Israel.  Deep  in  their 
hearts  they  cherished  these  marvellous  prophecies 
as  the  corner-stone  of  faith,  and  they  rose  from  hear- 
ing them  with  enkindled  resolution  and  a  contempt 
for  the  flimsy  apparatus  of  religion  that  was  thrust 
upon  them  by  pagan  society. 

And  were  not  their  sorrows  like  those  of  Christ 
foretold  by  the  holy  David  ? 

The  philosophy  of  affliction,  that  exudes  from  the 


194  ST.  AGNES  OF  ROME. 

Psalms  like  some  strong  balm  or  ointment,  fell  upon 
ardent  and  expectant  souls.  They  were  transfig- 
ured by  it  and  came  forth  among  men  no  longer 
the  citizens  of  a  low  and  mean  earth,  but  the  citi- 
zens of  a  city  not  built  by  hands,  and  members  of 
the  Jerusalem  that  is  above. 

Now  they  knew  what  history  meant,  whither  hu- 
manity was  drifting,  what  was  the  reason  of  evil  and 
sorrow,  what  were  its  remedies,  what  the  purpose  of 
life,  what  the  utility,  the  reason  of  death.  Each  in 
his  or  her  own  soul  walked  with  the  holy  prophet 
through  the  valley  of  doubt  and  temptation  and 
came  out  with  him  on  the  sunny  uplands  of  faith 
and  hope  and  love.  Religion  became  an  intimately 
personal  thing  with  them,  and  in  their  transmuted 
hearts  there  was  no  longer  a  place  for  the  goods  of 
the  world  that  hated  the  one  thing  they  held  dear, 
and  pursued  it  to  exterminate  it. 

This  world  was  sunk  in  malignity  when  it  was  not 
rotten  to  the  core.  It  was  blind,  perverse,  unjust. 
One  ray  shone  through  its  accumulating  iniquity 
and  revealed  in  light  inaccessible  a  wise  and  holy 
Judge,  at  whose  bar  the  multitudinous  wrongs  of  hu- 
man life  should  be  redressed.  Now  they  were  dwell- 
ers in  mighty  Babylon  where  all  things  offended 
them,  but  there  stood  the  two  open  doors  of 
death,  natural  and  violent,  through  either  of  which 


ST.   AGNES  OF  ROME.  195 

they  would  gladly  walk  when  it  was  the  Father's 
will. 

In  reality  this  long  multitudinous  conflict  was 
between  a  society  that  believed  only  in  this  world 
and  a  society  that  believed  in  a  world  to  come; 
between  men  and  women  who  believed  that  the 
silent  grave  was  the  sure  end  of  life,  and  other  men 
and  women  who  believed  that  it  was  only  the  vesti- 
bule of  life;  between  a  society  built  on  the  rock  of 
Christian  faith  and  one  founded  on  the  weak  and 
shifting  opinions  and  devices  of  men.  The  former 
had  a  government,  a  philosophy,  an  ethics,  a  litera- 
ture, an  art,  all  based  on  the  principle  that  beyond 
this  earth  there  was  no  other  existence,  or  at  least 
none  that  man  could  certainly  know  and  usefully 
strive  for.  In  time  the  highest  and  sole  ideal,  the 
only  sufficient  scope,  of  human  activity,  came  to  be 
the  common  weal,  the  social  fabric,  the  state  itseK. 
In  one  way  or  another  the  civil  order  became  the  real 
god  of  that  old  society  into  which  East  and  West  had 
been  for  centuries  merging  around  the  Mediterra- 
nean. Compromise  and  concession  were  its  ordinary 
weapons  in  all  that  pertained  to  the  other  world,  a 
growing  tolerance  and  indifference  of  religious  belief. 
So  long  as  the  official  ritual  of  the  state's  inherited 
religion  was  acknowledged,  the  subject  of  the  state 
might  adore  with  impunity  one  god  or  ten  thousand, 


196  ST.  AGNES  OF  ROME. 

might  follow  the  dictates  of  pure  philosophy  or  the 
wildest  extravagances  of  Oriental  worship.  But  nov/ 
there  had  been  growing  in  the  very  heart  of  that 
ancient  state,  under  the  shadow  of  its  oldest  monu- 
ments and  symbols,  a  new  view  of  man's  relations  to 
the  other  world.  The  Christian  held  that  the  one 
and  only  God  had  revealed  Himself  and  His  will  to 
all  mankind;  that  He  had  done  this,  indeed,  many 
centuries  before,  though  in  an  imperfect  way,  and  to 
one  people  alone;  that  now  He  had  made  Himself 
known  to  the  whole  world  through  His  beloved  Son 
Jesus  Christ;  that  this  Son  of  God  had  really  dwelt 
among  men  in  the  flesh  and  had  died  for  their  re- 
demption; that  He  had  renewed  the  ancient  divine 
laws  against  the  false,  debasing  worship  of  many 
gods,  and  had  left  a  new  and  perfect  code  of  conduct 
based  on  His  own  absolutely  holy  life;  that  the  re- 
ligious element  in  life  and  society  was  the  indis- 
pensable one;  that  instead  of  being  the  last  care  of 
the  social  authority,  what  we  thought  of  God  should 
be  the  foremost,  as  being  the  true  source  of  perfect 
morality  and  the  only  reliable  bond  of  human  society 
itself. 

From  the  laws  and  justice  of  the  Roman  state  they 
appealed  to  the  higher  law,  the  original  justice  of  the 
Creator  of  all  men.  Year  in  and  year  out,  at  the 
tribunal  of  praetor  or  proconsul,  they  convoked  these 


ST    AGNES  OF  ROME.  197 

judges  to  meet  them  on  a  certain  day — the  Last  Day 
— before  an  omniscient^  hol}^,  and  impartial  Judge. 
So  intense  was  their  belief  in  the  immortality  of  the 
individual  soul,  in  the  truth  of  the  divine  promises  of 
Jesus,  in  the  moral  horror  of  the  social  life  about 
them  that  they  threw  their  lives  from  them  as  a  worn 
garment,  and  in  every  violent  death  saw  a  triumph 
more  far-reaching  than  any  Alexander  or  Caesar  had 
ever  won.  To  their  eyes  the  average  world  about 
them  was  so  sunk  in  vice  and  wrong,  so  lost  to  the 
most  ordinary  sentiments  of  truth  and  justice,  so 
conscienceless  in  all  that  pertained  to  the  plain  du- 
ties of  man  towards  his  Creator  and  Preserver,  so 
blind  to  the  simplest  obligations  of  respect  and  ser- 
vice of  the  True  God,  that  to  longer  stay  in  such  a 
world  was  unbearable,  and  the  hour  of  their  disso- 
lution a  welcome  and  blessed  hour.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  pagan  society  looked  on  them  as  a  genuine 
curse  of  life.  The  irreligious  but  superstitious  mob 
of  every  city  made  them  responsible  for  all  the 
natural  misfortunes  of  the  time — famine,  pestilence, 
flood,  conflagration — and  decimated  them  again  and 
again  in  its  fits  of  ungovernable  fury.  The  thinkers, 
the  magistrates,  and  the  philosophers  might  smile  at 
the  reasoning  of  the  mob,  but  they  put  the  Christian 
to  death  for  a  reason  of  a  higher  order — he  denied 
the  sole  and  absolute  supremacy  of  the  state.    His 


198  ST.  AGNES  OF  ROME. 

real  crime  was  his  political,  not  his  religious,  obsti- 
nacy, what  they  held  to  be  his  perverse  stubborn- 
ness in  face  of  the  social  order  itself.  He  dared  to 
maintain  a  higher  principle  than  was  known  to  the 
pubhc  authority,  and  to  set  his  personal  conviction 
above  the  common  reason  of  the  community.  In 
other  words,  the  Christian  martyr  contended  for  a 
new  thing  in  the  history  of  humanity,  for  liberty  of 
conscience.  No  more  perfect  formulae  of  that  great 
principle  were  ever  uttered  than  were  put  forth  in 
those  days  by  the  learned  men  of  the  Christians.  All 
men  know  how  the  memorable  conflict  ended  with 
the  triumph  of  Christianity — the  blessed  Agnes  her- 
self was  one  of  the  last  victims  of  the  cruel  struggle, 
though  so  glorious  a  one  that  all  Christianity  forever 
repeats  the  praises  of  the  delicate  maiden  who  wit- 
nessed so  successfully  for  Jesus  Christ. 

Nevertheless,  paganism,  though  driven  from  the 
public  offices  and  places  of  honor,  was  far  from 
vanquished.  Historians  draw  for  us  a  vivid  pic- 
ture of  the  long  conflicts  that  it  sustained  before 
it  yielded  all  hope  of  a  formal  reinstatement.  And 
when,  at  last,  it  saw  the  Roman  world  finally 
Christian,  it  saw  also  the  coarser  forms  of  its  own 
religion  coming  from  the  mysterious  homes  of 
barbarism  to  contest  with  Christianity  the  peaceful 
possession  of  its  conquest. 


ST.  AGNES  OF  ROME.       ,  199 

For  a  thousand  years,  indeed,  during  the  long 
epoch  that  was  the  childhood  and  youth  of  the 
great  modern  nations,  the  political  control  of  the 
world  was  wrested  from  the  hands  of  paganism. 
Men  believed  in  a  Christendom,  an  earthly  society 
of  all  Christian  peoples  bound  in  amity  and  charity 
and  mutual  helpfulness,  inspired  by  the  Gospel 
of  Jesus  Christ  and  the  spirit  of  His  holy  Church, 
whose  aim  was  the  life  eternal  with  God  and  His 
saints,  whose  ideals  were  all  spiritual,  grandiose, 
uplifting  man  out  of  the  narrowness  and  insuf- 
ficiency of  this  life.  But  when  the  barbarian 
nations  had  been  led  by  the  hand  of  the  mediaeval 
Church  within  the  reach  of  the  ciilture  and  per- 
fection of  old  Greece  and  Rome,  the  evil  principles 
and  corrupting  spirit  of  paganism  that  had  never 
utterly  died  away  began  to  reassert  themselves. 
They  had  only  seemed  to  die — in  their  monuments, 
in  their  literature,  in  the  praxis  of  government,  in 
the  letter  of  law,  in  the  human  heart  itself,  they 
had  found  a  safe  and  untroubled  refuge. 

So  it  is  now  four  hundred  years  that  the  original 
conflict  of  Christianity  and  paganism  is  again  on 
the  'stage  of  life.  This  is  the  last  and  irreducible 
formula  or  law  that  explains  sufficiently  the  phe- 
nomena of  political,  social,  and  religious  changes 
that  fill  the  pages  of  all  modern  history.     Grad- 


200  ST.   AGNES  OF  ROME. 

ually  the  measure  of  human  duty,  responsibility, 
endeavor,  of  the  scope  and  purposes  of  hfe,  of  all 
idealism,  of  the  nature  and  uses  of  pleasure,  of 
the  place  and  calling  of  the  human  body,  of  the 
sacreclness  and  solemnity  of  human  life,  has  been 
made  to  square  with  the  conviction  that  with  the 
death  of  the  body  there  is  an  end  of  all  things. 
I  know  that  there  are  many  forms  of  this  genuine 
materialism  and  atheism,  ranging  from  the  crassest 
and  vilest  to  the  most  refined  and  elegant.  So, 
too,  in  the  days  of  St.  Agnes  there  were  repre- 
sentatives of  the  earthly  philosophy  of  Epicurus 
who  spoke  in  language  of  varying  degrees  of  frank- 
ness^— yet  they  were  all  disciples  of  personal  pleas- 
ure and  comfort,  and  each  saw  in  her  an  example 
of  monumental  folly.  In  the  measure  that  the 
unity  and  authority,  the  prestige  and  social  action 
of  the  Catholic  Church  have  grown  weak  the  tem- 
per and  the  forms  of  paganism  have  grown  strong. 
Gradually  the  ground  is  being  cleared  of  all  the 
middle  forms  of  Christianity.  A  minority  falls 
away  to  Catholicism,  the  great  majority  accept 
the  yoke  of  paganism.  There  is  no  truer  expres- 
sion of  human  life  than  the  average  literature  of 
the  day.  Outside  of  the  Catholic  Church,  does 
it  not  bear,  to  a  very  great  extent,  the  hallmark 
of  paganism?    Will  any  one  maintain  that  in  the 


ST.  AGNES  OF  ROME.  201 

average  romance  or  novel,  in  biography,  history, 
travel,  in  philosophy  and  social  studies,  the  prin- 
ciples and  the  spirit  of  Christianity  are  prevalent? 
In  our  great  universities,  every  one  of  them  strain- 
ing to  run  a  glorious  race  in  the  near  futiu-e,  every 
one,  or  nearly  every  one  of  them,  endowed  with 
means  that  a  century  ago  would  have  looked  fabu- 
lous, is  Christian  theology  honored,  represented 
by  strong  and  large  and  earnest  faculties,  or  is 
it  not  rather  said  that  there  is  no  use  for  Christian 
theology  in  our  busy  material  world,  since  it  does 
not  always  bring  material  gain  and  advantage? 
Can  any  one  who  has  an  inkling  of  the  history  of 
institutions  doubt  that  it  is  the  great  miiversities 
of  the  land  that  fashion  its  future?  Must  a 
prophet  arise  to  make  this  clear  to  Catholics? 
What  the  universities  think  and  say  to-day  are 
to-morrow  principles  of  action  for  the  multitude. 
Little  by  little,  in  every  state,  the  popular  educa- 
tion is  being  shaped  by  them,  i.e.,  the  temper  and 
the  ideals  of  the  whole  people.  What  their 
brilliant  writers,  investigators,  orators,  inventors, 
poets,  their  men  of  high  and  fascinating  genius, 
their  masters  of  English  style  and  their  teachers 
of  trenchant  personality,  hold  forth  to  an  admiring 
world  as  the  true  values  of  life,  as  the  real  reme- 
dies for  our  woes  and   sorrows,   as  the   sure  keys 


202  ST.  AGNES  OF  ROME, 

to  the  problems  that  have  been  agitating  mankind 
for  untold  centurieS;  will  surely  be  believed.  And 
being  believed,  with  the  simple  directness  of  our 
American  people,  these  thoughts  will  soon  be  put 
into  action,  and  so  our  institutions  and  habits, 
our  views  of  God  and  man  and  society,  in  an  in- 
credibly short  time,  will  differ  but  little  from  those 
of  a  Petronius  or  a  Gallio. 

Oh,  beware !  you  who  have  fought,  yourselves  and 
your  ancestors,  for  many  a  long  and  hopeless  decade 
the  good  fight  for  the  saving  teachings  of  the  Holy 
Catholic  Church;  beware  how  you  abandon  them 
lightly  at  the  opening  of  the  great  new  temporal 
life  that  lies  before  us!  In  many  ways  it  is  a  new 
heaven  and  a  new  earth  that  unfold  their  charms 
and  their  possibilities,  but  of  what  value  will  it 
all  be  if  in  the  ages  to  come  the  corrupting  prin- 
ciples of  paganism,  its  fatal  philosophy  of  the 
sufficiency  of  this  life,  once  more  work  the  ruin  that 
lies  to  its  discredit  in  the  past?  Step  by  step, 
through  this  His  holy  Church,  ordinarily,  Jesus 
Christ  gave  back  to  mankind  the  original  freedom 
and  happiness  that  paganism  had  destroyed.  His 
Holy  Spirit  breathed  continuously  on  the  mori- 
bund society  of  the  ancients,  and  lo!  bondage  and 
slavery  lost  their  real  sting,  and  human  equality 
was  proclaimed — the  first  and  only   genuine   Dec- 


ST.  AGNES  OF  ROME.  203 

laration  of  the  Rights  of  Man.  Human  labor  was 
sanctified  by  the  daily  toil  of  the  Man-God,  and 
poverty  was  no  longer  a  stigma  when  He  had 
chosen  it  for  His  bride.  In  Him  the  native  dig- 
nity of  man  was  restored. 

"Christianity  sanctified  each  individual/'  says 
one  of  the  greatest  of  our  historians,  "inasmuch 
as  it  taught  him  to  live  and  die  for  Christ.  It 
sanctified  the  family,  because  it  thoroughly  pene- 
trated domestic  life,  and  filled  it  with  the  aroma 
of  piety  and  devotion.  It  sanctified  the  married 
couple,  the  children,  the  household,  by  binding 
them  together  in  true  mutual  love;  thereby,  little 
by  little,  all  society  was  gradually  transformed 
by  it  from  within,  filled  with  hitherto  unsuspected 
ideas,  and  fitted  out  with  new  strength  and  capac- 
ity. The  Church  was  the  herald  and  intermediary 
of  a  superior  morality  and  culture;  she  gave  back 
again  to  the  slave  the  dignity  of  man;  she  ennobled 
daily  toil,  hitherto  so  despised;  she  called  the  poor 
and  humble  to  the  side  of  the  rich  and  noble,  and 
designated  them  as  the  equals  of  the  latter;  she 
taught  man  how  to  despise  at  once  the  advantages 
of  life  and  the  terrors  of  death.  Through  her, 
humility,  continency,  and  chastity  became  honor- 
able things.  She  created  new  men  and  filled  them 
with  new  life,   made  them  conscientious   citizens, 


204  ST.  AGNES  OF  ROME. 

true  fathers,  loving  children,  trustworthy  servants, 
characters  truly  great  and  noble  in  every  state  of 
life.  In  all  of  these  she  formed  the  Christian  ideal, 
and  went  on  forever  finishing  and  perfecting  it. 
In  the  midst  of  ancient  society  she  opened  an 
ever-flowing  fountain  of  consolation  and  spiritual 
elevation  for  all  the  oppressed  and  imfortunate. 
Very  truly  indeed  she  renovated  the  face  of  the 
world/' 

Moreover,  Jesus  Christ  made  each  one  respon- 
sible for  his  brother,  thereby  wiping  out  that  aw- 
ful Cain-like  principle  that  each  one  must  suffice 
for  himself.  Is  not  this  the  right  of  the  strongest, 
the  diabolical  philosophy  that  life  and  its  joys 
and  duties  are  only  to  the  strong,  that  the  fiercest 
competition  in  trade  is  as  permissible  as  the  fiercest 
struggle  for  political  supremacy  —  only,  woe  to 
the  conquered!  Oh,  no!  the  divine  eyes  of  Jesus 
swept  the  whole  stage  of  life,  and  He  enunciated 
a  law  that  must  forever  dominate  all  Christian 
energizings  and  activities  of  whatever  kind,  the 
law  of  charity,  the  Golden  Rule,  the  principle  of 
a  common  brotherhood,  the  conviction  of  a  mutual 
responsibility  as  members  of  one  great  family 
raised  by  the  Death  of  the  Man-God  from  the 
depth  of  degradation  to  the  vision  of  God  Himself. 
In  that  society  the  death  of  a  little  maiden  for 


ST.  AGNES  OF  ROME.  205 

the  common  good  is  as  ennobling  and  generous 
an  act  as  the  death  of  a  Socrates  or  a  Thrasea 
Psetus— nay,  more  so,  for  she  has  found  an  army  of 
imitators  where  the  martyr  of  Philosophy  and 
the  martyr  of  the  Republic  stood  almost  alone. 
They  died  for  themselves,  and  their  example  was 
sterile; — for,  sublime  as  was  their  death,  it  was 
the  death  of  mere  men.  But  in  Agnes,  by  the 
holy  and  sublime  law  of  Christian  association, 
every  true  follower  of  Jesus  dies  for  Him  in  spirit 
and  desire,  because,  weak  as  was  the  body  and 
tender  the  age  of  the  martyr,  she  was  indissolubly 
boimd  in  common  membership  with  all  true 
Christians  beneath  one  common  head,  Christ 
Jesus. 

Dearly  beloved  brethren,  it  is  long  since  we  have 
known  what  it  is  to  endure  suffering  in  our  bodies 
for  the  sake  of  our  religion,  long  since  we  have 
made  acquaintance  with  the  dungeon,  the  stake, 
the  block,  political  and  social  ostracism,  the  es- 
tate of  the  pariah  and  wanderer  among  men  for 
the  cause  of  faith.  Perhaps  this  is  one  reason 
why  the  eyes  of  the  Christian  faith  are  no  longer 
as  keen  as  of  old,  why  we  no  longer  scent  danger 
where  it  abounds.  The  tide  of  paganism  rises 
about  us,  in  art,  in  education,  in  the  life  of  the 
common  man  that   is  lived   out   in   industrv  and 


206  ST,  AGNES   OF  ROME. 

commerce,  in  political  principles  and  situations, 
in  views  of  God,  man,  the  soul,  society,  life  and 
death — what  they  are,  why  they  are,  and  what 
is  the  just  and  proper  attitude  of  each  individual 
towards  them.  We  are,  unconsciously  perhaps, 
unlearning  at  a  rapid  rate  the  old  Christian  phi- 
losophy of  life  and  putting  in  its  place  a  new  and 
un-Christian,  one  day  to  be  anti-Christian,  phi- 
losophy. Think  you  that  when  the  hour  of  trial 
comes,  as  it  must  come,  when  the  usual  stern  call 
goes  forth  for  the  choosing  between  this  life  and 
the  life  to  come,  we  shall  all  share  the  principles 
and  be  ensouled  by  the  spirit  of  St.  Agnes?  Is 
it  possible  that,  as  long  ago  in  the  rich  and  popu- 
lous cities  of  Carthage  and  Alexandria,  so,  too,  in 
this  great  world-city,  only  a  small  number  shall 
be  found  steadfast,  faithful  imto  death  in  whatever 
form  it  may  come?  If  so,  it  will  be  because  we, 
their  predecessors,  fell  away,  in  our  hearts,  in  our 
admirations,  in  our  compromises  and  compla- 
cencies, to  the  essence  of  paganism — its  spirit. 
For  the  multitudes,  under  any  form  of  govern- 
ment, that  spirit  means  the  pleasures  and  com- 
forts of  this  life.  In  the  measure  that  we  adore 
these  things  we  belong  to  the  persecutors  of  Agnes, 
since  now,  as  then,  there  is  no  middle  way.  Is  it 
necessary   to   add   that    pleasure,    for   societies   as 


ST.  AGNES  OF  ROME.  207 

well  as  for  individuals,  ends  in  weariness  and 
emptiness,  in  a  ruinous  scepticism,  and  that 
hitherto  every  society  infested  with  scepticism 
has  gone  to  the  wall  in  conflict  with  a  society  in- 
spired by  faith? 

The  saints  of  Catholicism  are  rightly  cherished 
by  us  for  their  superior  virtue,  for  their  merits  be- 
fore God  and  man,  for  their  imitation  now  of  one 
phase,  now  of  another  of  the  life  of  Jesus  Christ. 
But  no  few  of  them  are  forever  memorable  as 
S3^mbols  and  types,  as  summing  up  in  their  persons 
and  careers  w^hole  epochs  of  conflict,  great  per- 
manent interests  of  religion,  immovable  principles 
of  conduct,  solenm  and  fundamental  lines  of 
righteousness.  It  is  a  great  warfare  that  the 
Catholic  Church  carries  on  from  century  to  cen- 
tury, and  she  needs  great  landmarks  or  monu- 
ments to  look  up  to,  amid  the  dust  and  changes 
of  a  battle  that  is  forever  shifting  its  field 
or  arena,  but  never  its  stake  and  meaning. 
An  Athanasius,  struggling  single-handed  against 
a  w^orld  of  opponents  for  the  divinity  of  Jesus 
Christ,  is  forever  a  fixed  star  of  hope  in  her 
firmament.  A  Gregory  the  Seventh  dying  in  exile 
and  abandonment  for  the  liberty  of  holy  Church 
rouses  forever  her  courage  in  the  centuries  that 
follow.    A  Thomas  of  Aquino  moving  with  dignity 


208  ST.  AGNES  OF  ROME. 

and  equity  between  the  contending  claims  of  rea- 
son and  authority  is  forever  a  guide  in  long  cen- 
turies of  scholastic  discord  and  mental  confusion. 
In  the  story  of  St.  Agnes  we  may  behold  one 
phase  of  the  long  conflict  with  paganism — the 
triumph  of  Christianity  over  the  obscenity  and 
impurity  of  the  ancient  life.  Not,  indeed,  that 
carnal  wickedness  no  more  existed,  but  it  was 
driven  from  the  seat  of  authority.  It  was  hence- 
forth personal,  individual,  not  a  public  and  ap- 
proved power.  It  was  no  longer  enthroned  in 
the  very  temples  of  religion,  no  longer  the  chief 
social  factor  in  human  life.  It  was  compelled 
to  hide  its  face  and  walk  abashed  and  degraded. 
It  was  hunted  away  from  the  presence  of  children 
and  growing  youth.  Its  vile  public  worship  was  a 
thing  of  the  past;  its  pestilential  breath  no  more 
infested  shamelessly  the  haunts  of  men — the 
streets  and  squares  and  meeting-places.  For 
long,  long  centuries  the  philosophy  of  polytheism 
had  been  drifting  into  an  apotheosis  of  the  flesh 
and  all  its  lower  and  more  perilous  instincts.  It 
had  become  as  a  very  Moloch  to  whom  all  the 
higher  goods  of  life  had  been  sacrificed — modesty, 
chastity,  self-respect,  the  intimate  inborn  sense 
of  human  dignity.  It  had  defied  aU  law,  and  set 
itself  in  the  place  of  law  under  the  guise  of  ancient 


ST.  AGNES  OF  ROME.  209 

and  common  custom.  Slowly,  but  surely,  it  had 
extinguished  in  the  statesmen  the  light  of  wisdom, 
in  the  army  the  love  of  fatherland,  in  the  family 
the  sanctity  of  natural  affection.  Look  nowhere 
else  for  the  decline  of  the  greatest  state  of  antiq- 
uity, in  some  respects  the  noblest  creation  of  hu- 
man genius!  Deliberately  it  walked  down  from 
the  heights  into  the  poisonous  valley  of  death. 
It  was  most  certainly  ruined  by  its  own  impuri- 
ties, but  above  all  by  its  adoration  of  merely  car- 
nal instincts  and  passions.  This  is  always  the 
last  word  of  paganism,  which  is  a  religion  of  de- 
scending and  destructive  forces,  never  of  uplift- 
ing and  constructive  energies.  The  paganism  of 
Rome  had  an  innate  contempt  and  fierce  hatred 
for  the  Christian  doctrine  and  discipline  of  vir- 
ginity— many  of  the  most  famous  Christian  mar- 
tyrs were  made  to  perish  because  they  would  not 
adore  the  shameless  gods  and  goddesses  of  the 
common  brothel.  And  so  the  Catholic  Church 
has  always  looked  with  especial  fondness  and 
pride  on  the  last  victim  of  genuine  pagan  secular- 
ism, St.  Agnes.  In  this  weak  body,  in  this  brief 
span  of  years,  what  a  superior  moral  beauty,  what 
an  incredible  wisdom!  After  that  scene  of  blood, 
every  Christian  priest  could  stand  forth  and  cry 
out  that  the  very  children  of  Catholicism   could 


210  ST.  AGNES  OF  ROME. 

overcome  the  hosts  of  paganism.  It  was,  no 
doubt,  amid  tears  of  joy  that  the  Sunday  after  her 
death  the  Bishop  of  Rome  recalled  the  wonderful 
steadfastness  of  the  purest,  noblest,  and  sweetest 
maiden  of  the  community,  and  that  every  listener 
felt  that  Jesus  Christ  was  visibly  and  lovingly 
jjresent  with  them.  What  they  could  not  know 
was  that  relief  was  near,  that  they  had  already 
won  the  victory.  But  in  the  wonderful  and  lov- 
ing justice  of  God  the  symbol  of  that  victory,  the 
name  that  through  sixteen  centuries  should  ex- 
press to  all  men  and  women  the  real  meaning  of 
the  persecution  of  the  Christian  religion  by  the 
Roman  state  in  its  own  glorious  seat  of  power,  was 
the  name  of  Agnes — of  all  names  the  one  least 
dreaded  by  the  civil  power  of  Rome.  And  yet 
this  was  eminently  just,  for  she  symbolized  Chris- 
tian morality,  with  all  its  freshness,  wholesome- 
ness,  and  helpfulness,  while  the  City  of  Rome,  in 
that  day,  stood  for  all  that  was  contrary  to  the 
real  well-being  of  its  citizens,  the  solid  growth  of 
the  body  politic  and  the  inalienable  freedom  of 
the  human  conscience. 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  EMPIRE  A.D.  250-312. 

What  was  the  actual  condition  of  the  Christian 
Church  when,  early  in  the  fourth  century,  the 
Edicts  of  Nicomedia  were  issued  against  her? 
The  question  is  an  extremely  important  one,  for 
in  the  succeeding  age  imperial  favor,  subtlest 
heresies,  multitudes  of  semi-Christians,  and  de- 
crease of  charity  gave  quite  another  physiognomy 
to  the  Christian  body.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
sources  of  our  information  for  the  later  period 
flow  so  fully  that  we  cannot  mistake  the  essential 
outlines  of  faith,  discipline,  and  organization, 
while  there  remain  only  fragmentary  evidences 
for  the  heroic  age  of  Christianity,  over  every  one 
of  which  a  jealous  and  interested  criticism  main- 
tains the  strictest  watch.  It  is  the  intention  of 
the  writer  to  draw  an  outline  of  Christianity  in 
those  early  ages,  not  precisely  from  the  genetic 
point  of  view,  but  rather  to  present  the  religion 
of  Christ  as  it  must  have  seemed  to  an  intelligent 
and  impartial  observer  in  the  closing  years  of  the 

211 


212  THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  EMPIRE. 

third  century — such,  perhaps,  as  it  may  have  ap- 
peared to  the  son  of  Constantius  Chlorus  while 
he  travelled  in  the  body-guard  of  the  Illyrian 
Csesar  through  Egypt  and  Syria,  or  hastened  in 
memorable  flight  across  the  heart  of  the  empire 
from  Byzantium  to  York.  The  moment  is  a 
propitious  one,  for  both  within  and  without  the 
Church  certain  lines  of  evolution  had  then  reached 
their  last  term.  The  subtle,  poisonous  influence 
of  the  Orient,  conveyed  through  a  hundred  forms 
of  Docetism  and  Gnosticism,  had  been  dissipated 
by  the  united  and  intelligent  efforts  of  the  Christian 
episcopate  and  the  writings  of  learned  Christians. 
The  episcopate  itself,  now  a  mighty  network,  fre- 
quently co-ordinate  with  the  municipal  system 
of  the  empire,  was  fully  conscious  of  its  own  na- 
ture and  mission.  An  immense  sympathy,  wide 
as  the  world  and  supremely  intense,  pulsated 
throughout  the  whole  body  from  the  humblest 
episcopi  gentium  on  the  borders  of  Scythia  or 
Arabia  to  the  successor  of  the  Fisherman.  Con- 
flict and  contradiction  had  drawn  out  all  the  la- 
tent energies  of  the  Christian  system,  and  as  the 
mind  wanders  over  the  contents  of  the  Christian 
literature  of  the  period,  the  thinker  is  astonished 
at  seeing  that  all  the  domestic  and  mixed  ques- 
tions which  will  eventually  convulse  Christendom, 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  EMPIRE.  213 

and  even  yet  disturb  the  peace  of  mankind,  were 
in  those  dim  days  troubling  the  minds  of  our  pred- 
ecessors. Whoever  will  turn  over  the  volumi- 
nous index  of  a  book  as  remarkable  as  dangerous  * 
may  convince  himself  that  within  the  first  three 
centuries  the  Christian  Church  had  been  called 
on  to  face,  at  least  in  embryonic  form,  the  most 
painful  internal  and  external  problems,  and  that 
she  solved  them  with  a  firmness  and  accuracy 
that  betray  a  rounded  and  plenary  consciousness 
of  her  sublime  mission  and  her  supreme  authority. 
Among  the  thousand  scattered  communities  of 
Christians  there  was  a  strong  sense  of  mutual 
fraternity,  of  solidary  fellowship — the  outcome  of 
the  common  teachings  and  sufferings  of  ten  gen- 
erations. Never  since  then  has  there  been  so 
little  jealousy,  so  little  mutual  distrust,  so  loving, 
frequent,  and  intimate  communication,  ignoring 
all   the   local   and   transitory   interests   of   earthly 

^  Renan:  Les  Origines  du  Christianisme  (8  vols.  Paris,  1891). 
On  the  Christian  side  there  is,  as  yet,  no  such  brilliant  and 
comprehensive  synthesis  of  a  multitude  of  excellent  mono- 
graphs. But  the  Origines  Chretiennes  of  the  learned  Abb  6 
Duchesne;  the  works  of  Professor  Probst  of  Breslau  on  doc- 
trine, prayer,  liturgy,  the  sacraments,  and  discipline  in  the 
first  three  centuries;  the  Histoire  des  Persecutions  by  Allard; 
the  Geschichte  der  roemischen  Kirche  by  Hagemann;  the  Hip- 
polytus  und  Callistus  of  Doellinger,  contain  valuable  anti- 
dotes to  the  Renanesque  virus.  Priceless  material  is  stored 
up  in  the  Bulleiino  di  Archeologia  Cristiana  of  De  Rossi. 


214  THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  EMPIRE. 

politics.  Antioch  and  Alexandria  recognized  with- 
out demur  the  spiritual  hegemony  of  Rome,  and 
with  maternal  affection  the  latter  sheltered  in 
her  bosom  the  multitudinous  Christian  visitors 
whom  business  or  curiosity  or  piety  led  to  the 
Golden  Queen.* 

On  the  other  hand,  the  relations  of  the  Homan 
state  to  Christianity,  after  much  uncertainty  and 
tergiversation,  had  at  last  reached  a  crucial  point, 
when  the  opposing  claims  of  Christ  and  Caesar 
must  be  settled,  either  by  peaceful  means  or  by 
the  dread  and  dangerous  arbitrament  of  blood. 
Perhaps  it  was  the  clear  sense  of  the  finality  of 
his  act  which  made  the  politic  son  of  Diodes  hesi- 
tate so  long  on  the  eve  of  the  combat,  and  exhaust 
every  weaker  makeshift  before  opening  the  last 
campaign  of  ethnicism  against  the  sweet  and  hum- 
ble law  of  Christ.     It  was  surely  this  conviction 

*  Cf .  Eusebius  H.  E.,  viii.  7.  St.  Athanasius:  On  the 
Opinion  of  Dionysius,  c.  13.  De  Synodis,  c.  43.  Euseb.  H. 
E.,  vii.  30;  iv.  23;  v  24.  Fresh  light  has  been  thrown  on 
the  ecclesiastical  supremacy  of  Rome  by  the  discovery  of  the 
second-century  epitaph  of  Abercius.  See  Lightfoot,  The 
Apostolic  Fathers,  SS.  Ignatius  and  Polycarp,  vol.  i.,  pp.  493- 
601,  and  the  Catholic  Times  of  Philadelphia,  April  29,  1893, 
p.  4:  "The  Inscription  of  Abercius."  Proofs  of  the  Roman 
supremacy  are  gathered  in  the  first  volume  of  Harnack's 
Dogmengeschichte,  and  illustrated  by  Hagemann  in  Die  roem- 
ische  Kirche  (Freiburg,  1864)  and  Schroedl,  Papstgeschichte 
(Mainz,  1888).  Cf.  Rivington,  The  Primitive  Church  and  the 
See  of  Peter  (London,  1894). 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  EMPIRE.  215 

which  caused  the  warfare  to  be  carried  on  against 
the  Christians  not  as  offending  citizens  of  a  com- 
mon state,  but  as  hostile  belHgerents.*  The  su- 
preme hour  had  come  for  the  death-struggle 
between  Christian  monotheism  and  the  motley 
polytheism  of  the  Gentile  world,  between  the  prin- 
ciples of  individual  spiritual  liberty  of  conscience 
and  absolute  civic  omnipotence,  between  the  City 
of  God  and  the  City  of  Man.  The  Roman  State 
of  the  first  century  looked  upon  the  Christians 
with  a  supercilious  contempt,  scarcely  distinguish- 
ing them  from  the  vile  herd  that  congregated  in 
the  Jewries  of  the  Suburra  and  the  Trastevere. 
As  the  evil  grew,  and  the  sensual,  mongrel  popu- 
lations of  the  great  cities  began  to  suspect  what 
Christianity  meant,  sedition  and  uproar  so  filled 
the  empire  that  the  governors  were  forced  to  in- 
tervene in  the  interests  of  public  order,  and  usually, 
with  a  fine  Roman  arbitrariness,  punished  in  the 
interest  of  peace  the  first  visible  cause,  however 
innocent.  But  it  was  not  alone  the  sensuous, 
soft  life  of  the  mob  that  Christianity  threatened; 
the  new  religion  was  a  constantly  increasing  peril 
for  the  old  ethnic  state  based  upon  a  vast  and 

*  ".The  divine  martyrs  throughout  the  world  .  .  .  were 
dealt  with  no  longer  by  common  law^  but  attacked  like  enemies 
of  war."— Eus.  H.  E.,  viii.  10. 


216  THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  EMPIRE. 

intricate    system    of    idolatry,    on    which    it    had 
grown  to  universal  supremacy,  and  for  which  it 
felt  that  clinging  sjnnpathy  which  exists  between 
institutions  that  have  grown  up  on  the  same  soil, 
under  the    same    influences,  and   with   the    same 
scope.    Between  that  state  and  Christianity  there 
could  be   no   alliance,   and  the  lawyer's  mind  of 
Tertullian    saw  deeper  into  the  true  position  than 
that    of    the    scholarly    apologist   Melito.^    So    it 
came   about  in  the  third  century  that  those   in 
whom    the    true  Roman    consciousness  was    live- 
liest, and  who  clung  with  the  most  idolatrous  pas- 
sion to  the  invincible  and  eternal  Majesty  of  the 
City,  were  firmly  persuaded  that  the  progress  of 
the  Christian  idea  meant  the  surrender  of  the  old 
urban  supremacy  and  the  abdication  of  her  secu- 
lar glories  before  a  mean  and  nameless  multitude, 
obedient  in  every  city  to  irresponsible  heads,  and 
actuated  by  ideals  utterly  strange,  if  not  directly 
hostile  to  the  ends  of  the  Roman  state.    This  ever- 
growing mass  had  in  all  large  centres  an  episcopus 
and  an  ecclesiaj   and  avoided  the  capitoUum  and 
the  fora.    It  held,  with  a  strange  unanimity,  doc- 

^  "  Sed  et  Caesares  credidissent  Christo  si,  aut  Caesares  non 
essent  necessarii  saeculo,   aut  si  et   Christiani  potuissent  esse 
Caesares." — Apologeticum,  c.    21,     Compare  the  vague  fear  of 
Celsus  that  the  Christians  will  ruin  the  state,  Origen  adv.  Cel- 
sum,  viii.  68,  and  Athenagoras,  Legatio,  ii.  3. 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  EMPIRE.  217 

trines  most  unintelligible  to  the  Roman  states- 
men. Its  teachings  concerning  the  poor,  celibacy, 
woman,  and  slavery  affected  the  existing  frame- 
work of  society  at  a  hmidred  points.  The  pro- 
found ineradicable  devotion  to  their  chiefs,  whether 
dead  or  alive,  excited  the  sombre  jealousy  of  the 
emperor,  who  claimed  for  the  Roman  Majesty, 
in  him  incorporate,  all  the  devotion  and  sympathy 
of  every   citizen. 

Frequent  invasion,  successful  insurrection,  blight- 
ing pests,  and  rapid  internal  decay  added  to  the 
gravity  of  the  situation,  and  we  need  not  wonder 
that,  in  such  a  frame  of  mind,  an  otherwise  good 
emperor  like  Decius,  blind  in  his  devotion  to  the 
tottering  State,  and  urged  on  by  the  jealous  phi- 
losophers and  the  interested  temple  priesthoods, 
undertook  the  eradication  of  the  hated  sect.  But 
he  came  too  late  to  the  task.  The  pusillus  grex 
had  been  shielded  for  over  two  centuries  from 
a  systematic  onslaught  that,  humanly  speaking, 
might  have  utterly  scattered  it  at  an  earlier  date, 
and  Decius  died,  confessing  that  the  cosmopolitan 
Christian  association,  with  its  centre  beneath  the 
shadow  of  the  Palatine,  was  a  graver  danger  to 
the  empire  than  any  change  of  dynasty.^    Hence- 

*Cum  multo  patientius  et  tolerabilius  audiret  levari  ad- 
versus  se  semulum  principem  quam  constitui  Romse  Dei 
sacerdotem.     St.  Cyprian,  Ep.  55,  9  (ed.  Hartel),  p.  630. 


218  THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  EMPIRE, 

forward,  Christianity  is,  in  a  sense,  on  a  political 
level  with  the  Empire.  In  the  long  series  of  irregu- 
lar successions  and  counter  revolutions  that  fill 
the  period  subsequent  to  the  brave  death  of  De- 
cius,  the  only  united  body  in  the  Empire  seems 
to  be  the  Christians,  and  their  influence  is  felt  and 
accepted  in  opposing  camps,  in  the  stress  of  public 
misfortune,  and  even  at  the  tribunal  of  Caesar. 
Henceforth  they  fill  the  armies,  and  the  highest 
officers  of  the  Empire  are  entrusted  to  them.  They 
are  in  the  councils  of  the  Illyrian  emperors,  and 
the  conversion  of  Caesar  is  no  longer  looked  on  as 
impossible  or  improbable.  The  females  of  the 
imperial  court  are  won  over  to  a  religion  of  all 
others  the  most  sympathetic  and  favorable  to 
their  sex.  The  very  camps  are  redolent  with  an 
atmosphere  of  Christianity,  and  it  is  already  in 
possession  of  the  highest  fruits  of  a  perfect  society 
among  men — varied  literature,  native  art  and 
architecture,  wTitten  legislation,  representative  as- 
semblies, domestic  annals,  and  an  enlightened 
public  opinion  based  on  the  ancient  traditions 
and  the  historic  evolution  of  the  Christian  world.  ^ 
It  is  at  this  period  of  transition,  in  the  lull  that 

*  De  Broglie,  VEglise  et  VEtat  au  IVieme  siecle,  6  vols., 
Paris,  1860-66,  vol.  i.,  c.  i.  Mason,  The  Persecution  of  Diocle- 
tian, Cambridge,  1876,  Burckhardt,  Die  Zeit  Constantins 
(2d  ed.),  Leipzig,  1880.  Gregg,  The  Persecution  of  Decius, 
London,  1897. 


THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  EMPIRE,  219 

follows  the  events  of  a.d.  250-251,  and  before  the 
outbreak  of  the  final  hurricane,  that  we  desire 
to  sketch  the  Christian  society,  its  numbers,  the 
causes  of  its  rapid  progress,  its  system  of  government, 
its  bonds  of  unity,  and  its  external  life  and  action. 

No  domain  of  history  has  been  scrutinized  by 
more  sharp  eyes,  or  has  been  subjected  to  more 
diverse  appreciations.  No  field  of  historical  re- 
search counts  to-day  more  patient,  well-equipped 
scholars.  For  these  reasons  a  summary  retro- 
spect of  the  true  condition  of  Christianity  at  this 
time  may  interest  the  general  reader  and  awaken 
in  him  fresh  sympathy  for  those  great  men  who 
upbore  its  banner  in  the  darkest  hour  of  conflict, 
confiding  only  on  the  justice  of  their  cause  and  the 
right  arm  of  the  Almighty — we  mean  the  Dionysii, 
the  Cornelii,  the  Sixti,  the  Cyprians,  the  Lucii, 
the  Eusebii,  the  Fabiani,  and  however  else  may 
have  been  called  the  leaders  of  that  glorious 
militia  which  lifted  the  walls  of  Sion  amid  the 
smoking  carnage  of  battle  and  the  horrid  din  of 
infernal  opposition. 

I. 

(a)  In  the  West. 

The  Number  of  the  Christians. — The  rapid  spread 
of  Christianity  in  the  West  is  evident  from  the 


220  THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  EMPIRE. 

testimony  of  Tacitus,  who  speaks  of  a  multitudo 
ingens  as  existing  at  Rome  in  the  time  of  Nero.^ 
It  was  thence  that  the  faith  was  carried,  at  mi- 
certain  epochs  of  the  first  or  second  centuries, 
to  Gaul,  Africa,  Spain,  Britain,  and  the  islands 
of  the  Mediterranean.  The  language  of  Tertul- 
lian,  in  his  apologetic  writings,^  though  some- 
what rhetorical,  must  yet  be  substantially  re- 
liable, and  his  statement  concerning  the  Britanno- 
rum  inaccessa  Romanis  loca  Christo  vera  suhdita^ 
is  borne  out  by  the  well-known  phrase  of  St. 
Irenseus  about  the  barbarian  nations  who  had 
the  law  written  in  their  hearts  without  ink  or 
paper.  ^ 

^  Igitur  primo  correpti  qui  fatebantur,  deinde  indicio  eorum 
multitudo  ingens,  baud  perinde  crimine  incendii  quam  odio 
humani  generis  convieti  sunt,  Annales  xv.,  44. 

2  Obsessam  voriferantur  civitatem :  in  agris,  in  castellis, 
in  insulis  Christianos;  omnem  sexum,  setatem,  conditionem, 
etiam  dignitatem  transgredi  ad  hoc  nomen  quasi  detrimento 
maerent.  Afologeticuni,  c.  1.  Hesterni  sumus  et  vestra 
omnia  implevimus,  urbes,  insulas,  castella,  municipia,  castra 
ipsa,  tribus,  decurias,  palatium,  senatum,  forum:  sola  vobis 
relinquimus   templa,    c.    37. 

3  Cui  ordinationi  assentiunt  multae  gentes  barbaronim, 
eorum  qui  in  Christum  credunt,  sine  charta  et  atramento 
scriptam  habentes  per  spiritum  in  cordibus  salutem,  et  vete- 
rem  traditionem  custodientes.  Adv.  haer.,  iii.,  4,  2.  Taking 
these  words  together  with  the  reference  of  Tertullian  to 
British  Christians,  it  seems  to  us  that  there  is  much  more 
than  modem  critics  allow  in  the  story  of  the  conversion  of 
the  British  king  (chieftain?)  Lucius  in  the  latter  half  of  the 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  EMPIRE.  221 

We  have  no  means  of  calculating  exactly  the 
proportion  of  the  Western  Christians  to  the  pagan 
population  at  the  close  of  the  third  century.  The 
number  of  bishops  would  afford  some  clew  if  it 
were  known.  The  Acts  of  the  pseudo-Synod  of 
Sinuessa,  compiled  toward  the  end  of  the  fifth 
century,  relate  that  in  the  year  303  there  were 
three  hundred  Italian  bishops  gathered  near  that 
city  to  condemn  the  Roman  bishop  MarceUinus 
for  his  supposed  fall.^  If  these  acts  represented 
any  local  traditions,  the  above  number  would 
indicate  a  large  Christian  population  in  Italy  at 
this  time.  We  have  yet  the  episcopal  lists  of  the 
Councils  of  Aries  (314)  and  Nice  (325),  but  in 
faulty  condition.  While  the  number  of  bishops 
present  at  the  latter  is  usually  put  down  at  318, 
the  ancient  authorities  variously  estimate  the 
number  at  Aries  from  33,  surely  too  small  for  a 
synod  called  by  St.  Augustine  plenarium  uni- 
verscB  ecclesioe  concilium,  to  600,  too  great  a  num- 
ber for  the  united  churches  of  Italy,  Gaul,  and 
Africa,  to  furnish  at  that  time.  About  the  year 
250,  the  Roman  Church  counted  nearly  one  hun- 

second  century.  See  Liber  Pontificalis  (ed.  Duchesne),  vol. 
i.,  pp.  cii.  59,  136,  and  the  articles  "Lucius"  and  "Eleuthe- 
rius,"  in  Smith's  Dictionary  of  Christian  Biography. 

^  Hefele,  History  of  the  Councils,  i.,  143.     Mansi,  Coll.  Am- 
plissima  Conc.^  i.^   1250. 


222  THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  EMPIRE. 

dred  and  fifty  clerics,  and  supported  from  com- 
mon funds  fifteen  hundred  widows  and  orphans.* 
We  learn  from  Eusebius,  that  at  a  Roman  synod, 
in  251,  there  were  present  sixty  bishops,  and 
more  priests  and  deacons,  while  a  Carthagenian 
synod  of  the  same  year  was  visited  by  "very 
many  bishops."  St.  Cyprian  likewise  informs  us 
that  several  years  earlier  a  Numidian  synod  held 
in  the  Lamhesitana  Colonia  counted  ninety  bishops 
among  its  members.^ 

The  Roman  Synod  of  313,  in  the  affair  of  Do- 
natus,  counted  among  the  judges  fifteen  Italian 
bishops,  and  three  from  Gaul,  while  Csecilius  and 
Donatus  brought  each  ten  African  bishops  with 
him.^  We  may  imagine  that  these  bishops  did 
not  represent  any  small  or  insignificant  places, 
since  as  early  as  343,  the  sixth  canon  of  the  council 
of  Sardica  forbade,  as  an  abuse,  the  location  of 
bishops  in  small  sees,  ne  vilescat  nomen  episcopi 
et  audoritas.  The  Liher  Pontificalis  mentions 
forty-six  episcopal  ordinations  at  Rome,  during 
six  and  a  half  years,  in  the  very  troublous  and 
interrupted  pontificates  of  Marcellus,  Eusebius, 
and  Miltiades. 

^  Eusebius,  Hist.  Ecc,  vi.,  43.  Letter  of  Cornelius  of  Rome 
to  Fabius  of  Antioch. 

^Euseb.,  ibid.     Cyprian,  ep.  59  (ed.  Hartel). 
"Optatus,  De  Schismate  Donatist,  lib.  i. 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  EMPIRE.  223 

The  latter  figures  argue  a  very  large  Christian 
population  at  Rome  before  the  persecutions  of 
Diocletian  began.  Eusebius  even  tells  us  that 
Maxentius  stopped  the  persecutions  to  please  the 
people,  and  his  famous  words  in  the  eighth  book 
of  his  history  on  the  extraordinary  increase  of  the 
Christians  must  be  taken  to  include  the  city  of 
Rome,  which  had  ever  been  the  chief  centre  of 
Christian    interests.^ 

A  very  large  part  of  the  Roman  lower  classes 
at  this  time  may  have  been  Christians,  as  they 
were  able  to  fill  the  city  with  sedition  and  uproar 
because  of  internal  dissensions  and  disputed  papal 
elections.^  The  inscriptions  of  the  catacombs 
justify  the  inference  that  many  of  the  middle 
classes  had  accepted  the  teachings  of  Christ, 
though  but  few  of  the  Roman  aristocracy  had 
openly  professed  the  faith.  At  the  beginning 
of  the  fourth  century  the  Roman  Church  had 
twenty-five  titles  or  quasi-parishes  for  the  pur- 
poses of  baptism  and  penance,  and  some  twenty 


»H.  E.  viii.,  cc.  1,  14. 

2  In  the  famous  case  of  the  disputed  election  between  Euse- 
bius and  Heraclius,  the  epitaph  of  St.  Eusebius,  recovered 
by  De  Rossi,  tells  us:  *'Hinc  furor,  hinc  odium  sequitur,  dis- 
cordia,  lites,  seditio,  caedes,  solvuntur  foedera  pacis,"  etc. 
See  Northcote  and  Brownlow,  Roma  Sotteranea,  I.,  p.  343. 


224  THE  CHURCH   AND  THE  EMPIRE. 

cemeteries  for  the  burial  of  the  dead.^  All  this 
argues  a  large  Christian  element,  and  we  cannot 
be  far  wrong  in  putting  down  the  contemporary 
Christians  of  Rome  at  about  one  hundred  thousand 
in  a  population  variously  estimated  from  eight 
hundred  thousand  to  a  million  and  a  half. 

There  were  certainly  as  many  more  in  the  rest 
of  Italy.  At  this  period  Africa  had  about  two 
hundred  bishops/  and  though  the  bishoprics  of 
Spain  were  fewer,  there  was  perhaps  the  same 
proportion  of  Christians  in  each  province  —  about 
one  hundred  thousand,  if  we  take  the  small  scale 
of  five  hundred  souls  for  each  bishop  of  Africa. 
In  Africa  the  rapid  spread  of  the  Donatist  heresy 
proves  the  great  number  of  Christians  early  in 
the  fourth  century.  In  330  the  Donatists  had 
two  hundred  and  seventy  bishops  at  a  synod,  i.e., 
one  for  every  Catholic  diocese.  The  Spanish  sy- 
nod of  Elvira  (about  300)  speaks  as  though  Chris- 
tians were  to  be  found  in  every  walk  of  life.  There 
is  in  its  utterances  a  consciousness  of  long-estab- 
lished   authority.     It    speaks    of    the    copia    puel- 

^  Ldber  Pontificalis  (ed.  Duchesne),  i.,  164.  "Hie  (Marcellus) 
.  .  .  XXV.  titulos  in  urbe  Roma  constituit,  quasi  dioeceses, 
propter  baptismum  et  poenitentiam  multorum  qui  converte 
bantur  ex  paganis,   et  propter  sepulturas    martyrum." 

'Miinter,  Primordia  Ecclesice  AfricancB.  Hafnise,  1829,  p. 
24. 


THE  CHURCH  AND   THE   EMPIRE.  225 

hrum  among  the  Christians,  and  the  danger  of  mar- 
rying outside  the  faith.  The  insistence  on  the 
frequentation  of  the  Mass  might  indicate  a  great 
increase  in  numbers,  and  consequent  lukewarm- 
ness  on  the  part  of  the  faithful.^ 

The  number  of  Christians  in  Gaul  cannot  have 
been  very  great  at  this  time,  and  they  were  per- 
haps confined  chiefly  to  the  valley  of  the  Rhone, 
the  southern  seacoast,  and  the  Roman  stations 
on  the  Rhine.  Sulpicius  Severus,  himself  a  Gallo- 
Roman,  tells  us  that  Christianity  was  slow  in  pene- 
trating into  Gaul:  ^^Religione  Deiserius  trans  Alpes 
siisceptaJ'  The  similar  testimony  of  Gregory  of 
Tours  is  borne  out  by  the  inscriptions  and  the 
study  of  the  ancient  episcopal  lists  of  Gaul.^ 
There  were  bishops  of  Treves  and  Cologne  at 
Aries  (314),  as  well  as  three  bishops  from  Britain, 
but  a  half-century  later  the  latter  country  had 
only  three  at  the  synod  of  Rimini  (359).  We  hear 
of  persecutions  under  Diocletian  at  St.  Albans 
and  Caerleon  in  Britain,  but  the  scanty  references 
to  them  do  not  justify  us  in  supposing  a  consid- 
erable Christian  population. 

^  Hefele,  I.  145.  In  the  Melanges  Renier  the  Abb^  Du- 
chesne has  shown  that  this  important  S}Tiod  was  held  about 
the  year  300. 

2  See  Duchesne,  Memoire  sur  Vorigine  des  diochses  episco' 
jpaux  en  Gaule,  Paris,  1890. 


226  THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  EMPIRE. 

The  apostolic  churches  of  Greece  and  Mace- 
donia seem  to  have  held  their  own  during  the  third 
century.  We  do  not  hear  of  any  notable  increase, 
but  this  may  be  owing  to  the  gradual  disappear- 
ance of  Greek  influences  from  Roman  public  life, 
as  well  as  to  the  stubborn  resistance  of  Hellenism 
on  its  own  natal  soil.  It  was  only  in  the  ninth 
century  that  paganism  was  eventually  extirpated 
in  the  remote  parts  of  the  Peloponnesus/  The 
churches  of  Corinth  and  Byzantium  were  flourish- 
ing at  the  end  of  the  second  century,  and  Chris- 
tianity had  already  been  well  established  in  many 
of  the  islands,  as  in  Crete  and  Melos. 

(h)  In  the  Orient. 
The  diffusion  of  Christianity  was  naturally  much 
greater  in  the  Orient.  It  was  long  looked  on  as 
an  Eastern  cult,  scarcely  distinguishable  from 
Judaism.  Its  professors  were  usually  from  the  East, 
where  its  first  communities  were  established,  and 
where  it  acquired  its  distinctive  name.  In  the 
West  the  barbarian  lands  were  an  almost  impas- 
sable barrier,  but  the  entire  East  was  the  seat  of 
ancient     culture     and     refinement — precisely     the 

^  Constantine  Porphyrogen,  De  Adm.  regni,  c.  50.  For 
the  details  of  the  gradual  extirpation  of  paganism  after  Con- 
stantine, see  Schultze,  Der  Untergang  des  Heidentums.  (Jena, 
1892.) 


THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  EMPIRE.  227 

field  for  a  religion  which  appealed  to  all  the  higher 
and  purer  instincts  of  humanity.  A  letter  of  Pliny 
to  Trajan  early  in  the  second  century  shows  what 
astonishing  progress  the  new  religion  had  made 
in  Bithynia  and  Pontus,  and  casts  a  strong  light 
on  the  missions  of  Paul  and  Barnabas  in  Asia 
Minor.  ^  Fifty  years  later,  the  magician  Alex- 
ander of  Abonoteichos  found  the  same  provinces 
full  of  atheists  and  Christians,  and  in  the  Easter 
controversy  several  bishops  of  this  region  took  a 
notable  part.^  In  the  latter  half  of  the  third  cen- 
tury Gregory  Thaumaturgus  is  said  to  have  almost 
entirely  converted  the  pagan  population  in  certain 
parts  of  Pontus,  and  his  Epistola  Canonica,  one  of 
the  earliest  and  most  venerable  documents  of  dio- 
cesan legislation,  supposes  many  well-established 
Christian  communities.  We  learn  from  Philos- 
torgius  ^  that  at  this  time  the  Goths  captured  many 
Christian  ecclesiastics  on  the  occasion  of  their  in- 
roads into  Cappadocia  and  Galatia. 

The  cities  of  the  w^estern  seaboard  of  Asia  Minor, 
Ephesus,  Smyrna,  Tralles,  Sardes,  Rhodes,  and 
others,  contained  a  very  large  Christian  popula- 
tion.     Already  in  the  middle  of  the  third  centurj^ 

1  Pliny,  Epp.,  Lib.  X.,  93. 
'  Lucian,  Pseudomantis,  c.  25. 

'  Philostorgius,  H.  E.,  ii.  15.  Routh,  ReliquicB  Sacrcs^  iii. 
256. 


228  THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  EMPIRE. 

the  city  of  Apamsea  in  Phrygia  *  seems  thoroughly 
Christian,  and  used  a  Christian  seal.  The  acts 
of  St.  Pionius  of  Smyrna  (middle  of  third  century) 
reveal  a  city  largely  Christian,  in  which  prejudice 
had  nearly  died  out.  The  apostolic  activity  of 
St.  John,  St.  Paul,  and  of  St.  Timothy;  the  mul- 
titude of  Jews  who  dwelt  in  these  towns;  the  pe- 
culiar susceptibility  to  Christian  influence  of  the 
numerous  Greek  artists  who  inhabited  this  region, 
contributed  greatly  to  the  increase  of  the  Chris- 
tians. 

In  the  first  three  centuries  we  learn  the  names 
of  only  about  thirty  episcopal  sees  in  this  quarter; 
but  that  they  were  much  more  numerous  is  evi- 
dent from  the  fact  that  about  one  hundred  bishops 
of  Asia  Minor  took  part  at  the  Council  of  Nice 

*  "Thenceforward  (from  a.b.  112)  for  three  hundred  years 
Phrygia  was  essentially  a  Christian  land.  There  began  the 
public  profession  of  Christianity;  there  are  found,  from  the 
third  century,  on  monuments  exposed  to  the  public  gaze,  the 
terms  Chrestianos  or  Christianos;  there  the  formulas  of  epi- 
taphs convey  veiled  references  to  Christian  dogmas;  there, 
from  the  days  of  Septimius  Severus,  great  cities  adopt  bibli- 
cal symbols  for  their  coins,  or  rather  adapt  their  old  tradi- 
tions to  biblical  narrations.  A  great  number  of  the  Christians 
of  Ephesus  and  Rome  came  from  Phrygia.  The  names  most 
frequently  met  with  on  the  monuments  of  Phrygia  are  the 
antique  Christian  names  (Trophimus,  Tychicus,  Tryphenus, 
Papias,  etc.),  the  names  special  to  the  apostolic  times  and  of 
which  the  martyrologies  are  full." — Renan,  Origines  du  Chris- 
tianisme,  iii.  363,  364. 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  EMPIRE.  229 

(325).  It  would  scarcely  be  an  exaggeration  to  say 
that  one-tenth  of  the  twenty  millions  of  Asia  Minor 
were  Christians  at  the  beginning  of  the  persecu- 
tion of  Diocletian. 

The    Christian    population    of    Syria   must   have 
been  proportionately  as  large  as  that  of  Asia  Minor. 
It  was  the  first  land  into  which  the  Jewish  pros- 
elytes   penetrated;     its    cities,    notably    Damascus 
and   Antioch,    were   filled   with   Jews.     Here,    too, 
a  very  large  share  of  the  early  Christian  literature 
arose.     The  early  Syriac  translation  of  the  sacred 
books  of  the  Christians  (the  Peschitta),  the  com- 
pilation of  such  episcopal  manuals  as  the  Apostolic 
Constitutions,  and  such  romances  as  the  Recogni- 
tions of  Clement,  the  tireless  activity  of  Pamphilus 
and  his  school  of  transcribers  in  copying  the  Scrip- 
tures—prove  that   there   were   many   communities 
of   wealthy   and   intelligent   Christians.     From  the 
end  of  the  first   century  Antioch  was  recognized 
by  them  as  the  head  of  all  the  churches  of  Syria, 
a  position,  to  which  her  size,  situation  and  history 
fully  entitled  her.     Syria  was  the  highway  of  Chris- 
tian missionaries  going  east  or  west  or  north,  and 
the  number  of  its  seaports  made  it  an  excellent 
field  for  proselytism;   on  the  other  hand,  the  coarse 
and   sensuous   character    of   its   idolatry   furnished 
the  Christians  the  most  tangible  of  arguments  in 


230  THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  EMPIRE. 

favor  of  monotheism.  The  discoveries  of  M.  De 
Vogiie  in  Northern  and  Central  Syria  have  put  it 
beyond  a  doubt  that  at  the  beginning  of  the  fourth 
century  there  was  a  very  large  percentage  of  Chris- 
tians of  rank  and  wealth  in  the  splendid  capital  of 
the  Orient.^  The  small  kingdoms  of  Osrhoene, 
Adiabene,  and  Edessa  were  in  great  measure  Chris- 
tian at  the  end  of  the  second  century.  In  fact 
the  first  national  conversion  to  Christianity  that 
we  know  was  that  of  the  Abgars  of  Edessa,  a  line 
of  kings  whose  Jewish  sympathies  go  back  more 
than  a  century  earlier.^ 

The  entire  population  of  Palestine  was  much 
reduced  in  the  early  imperial  period,  and  perhaps 
it  did  not  amount  to  more  than  six  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand.  Among  them  there  existed  yet, 
and  for  many  years  after,  the  small  church  of  the 
Nazarene  Christians.^  But  the  vast  majority  be- 
longed to  the  Universal  Church.  The  Jews  pre- 
served for  a  long  time  a  peculiar  autonomy,  es- 
pecially   on    their    native    soil.     The    rabbinical 


*  De  Vogiie,  La  Syrie  Centrale,  Architecture  civile  et  reli- 
gieuse,  du  I.  au  VII.  sikcle.     Paris,  1865. 

^  Chronicon  Edessenum  in  the  Bibliotheca  Orientalis  of  As- 
semani.  For  the  many  interesting  questions  connected  with 
the  origin  of  Christianity  in  these  regions,  see  Tixeront,  Les 
Origines  de  VEglise  d'Edesse,  Paris,  1888. 

^St.  Jerome,  Ep.  74  (89)  ad  Augustinum. 


THE  CHURCH   AND  THE  EMPIRE.  231 

schools  nurtured  the  vague  hope  of  a  glorious  tem- 
poral Messiah;  and  their  patriarchs  were  clothed 
with  a  mixed  temporal  and  spiritual  power,  which 
was  so  great  in  the  time  of  Origen  that  the  Jews 
pointed  to  it  to  show  that  the  sceptre  had  not  yet 
passed  from  Judah.^  Still  from  the  beginning  of 
the  third  century  we  notice  that  there  is  a  kind 
of  renaissance  in  Christian  proselytism.  The 
death  of  the  bishop  Narcissus  removed  a  venerable 
but  aged  administrator.  Alexander,  a  Greek,  who 
had  come  on  a  pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem,  succeeded 
him.  He  seems  to  have  been  a  man  of  great  lit- 
erary activity,  and  the  earliest  public  library  of 
Christendom  was  his  creation.  There  is  reason 
to  believe  that  from  this  time  many  pilgrims  came 
yearly  to  Jerusalem,  which  some  ancient  Chris- 
tians looked  on  as  the  centre  of  the  earth.  Their 
number  may  have  been  one  of  the  reasons  why 
the  city  arose  about  this  time,  even  before  the 
victory  of  Constantine,  to  a  greater  influence  than 
it  had  enjoyed  as  a  colony  of  Hadrian.^ 

The  frequent  and  bloody  persecutions  of  the 
Alexandrine  Christians  are  clear  evidence  that 
they    were    numerous.    The    cosmopolitan    char- 

*  See  Schiirer,  History  of  the  Jewish  People  in  the  Time  of 
Jesus  Christ,    vol.  i.,  part  ii.  p.  276. 

2  Euseb.,  Hist.  Ecc,  vi.,  8,  20;   vi.,  14,  19,  32. 


232  THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  EMPIRE. 

acter  of  the  city,  the  Paris  of  antiquity,  with  its 
multitudinous  traders  and  travellers  from  Britain 
to  India,  furthered  the  Christian  proselytism  in  a 
city  of  philosophers,  students,  and  inquirers.  We 
find  here,  from  the  latter  half  of  the  second  cen- 
tury, a  kind  of  Christian  university,  the  famous 
catechetical  school,  which  drew  many  pagans  to 
its  lectures.  The  history  of  the  Arian  heresy  in 
its  incipient  stage  shows  a  very  large  body  of  Chris- 
tians at  Alexandria  early  in  the  fourth  century, 
where,  at  the  same  time,  we  hear  of  parishes  (as 
at  Rome),  of  hundreds  of  consecrated  virgins,  and 
similar  indications  of  a  flourishing  community. 
The  Egypto-Meletian  schism  is  proof  that  the 
Coptic  church  was  widespread  throughout  the 
Delta  and  along  the  Nile,  and  the  same  conviction 
results  from  the  reading  of  the  acts  of  the  Coptic 
martyrs. 

Early  in  the  fourth  century  Alexander  of  Alex- 
andria was  able  to  gather  a  hundred  bishops  in 
the  preliminary  synod  that  condemned  the  teach- 
ings of  Arius.  Altogether  it  has  been  calculated 
that  Egypt  contained,  in  the  time  of  Diocletian, 
about  the  same  percentage  of  Christians  as  Asia 
Minor,  i.e.,  about  one  milHon,  or  the  eighth  part 
of  the  population.  In  this  may  rightly  be  included 
the  long  strip  of  Libyan  territory  and  the  Pentap- 


THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  EMPIRE,  233 

olis.  Ancient  Christian  catacombs  have  been  dis- 
covered in  the  territory  of  Cyrenaica,  which  be- 
tray the  presence  of  numerous  Christians.^ 

Beyond  the  limits  of  the  empire,  Armenia,  the 
first  of  the  great  kingdoms  to  accept  Christianity 
as  the  religion  of  the  state,  was  thoroughly  Chris- 
tian before  the  victory  of  Saxa  Rubra  (a.d.  312). 
The  work  of  Gregory  the  Illuminator  was  then 
going  on  over  the  whole  plateau  of  this  vast  border- 
land, where  Roman  and  Parthian,  Byzantine  and 
Persian,  fought  so  long  and  so  fiercely  for  abso- 
lute dominion.  Its  sparse  population  of  three 
millions  lived  in  somewhat  feudal  relations  with 
the  great  nobles  and  the  king.  The  aristocracy 
must  have  become  Christian  at  the  same  time, 
since  we  learn  from  Eusebius  that  Maximinus 
Daza  made  war  against  Armenia  (312)  for  having 
embraced  Christianity,  and  an  ancient  tradition 
says  that  Gregorj^  ordained  four  hundred  bishops 
before  his  death.  ^ 

^Eusebius  (H.  E.,  viii.  8)  speaks  of  "multitudes  of  Chris- 
tian martyrs"  in  Egypt  during  the  last  persecution.  One 
group  condemned  to  the  copper-mines  of  Palestine  included 
seventy,  and  another  one  hundred  and  thirty  men.  The 
language  and  conduct  of  Dionysius  of  Alexandria,  in  the  pre- 
vious generation,  show  a  very  large  Christian  population,  not 
only  at  Alexandria,  but  throughout  the  Delta  of  the  Nile. 
On  the  catacombs  of  Egypt  and  Cyrenaica,  see  Kraus,  Real- 
Encyclopddie,    ii.    136. 

2  Agathangelos  and  Moses  of  Khorene  (Langlois,  Historiens 


234  THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  EMPIRE. 

Persia  is  the  country  to  which  the  apocryphal 
but  very  ancient  Acts  of  the  Apostles  Simon  and 
Jude,  Thomas  and  Matthew,  point  as  'Hhe  dark 
and  bloody  ground"  of  their  apostolate.  The 
Jews  were  there  in  larger  numbers  than  elsewhere 
in  the  world  outside  of  Judaea.^  The  border-lands 
of  Mesopotamia  and  the  small  Syro-Greek  king- 
doms were  filled  with  Christian  communities,  and 
Greek  and  Roman  influences  prevailed  largely 
at  the  court  of  the  last  kings  of  the  Parthian  dy- 
nasty.^ The  great  persecution  begun  by  the  new 
national  dynasty  of  the  Persians  under  Schapur 
(Sapor)  11.  reveals  a  sense  of  fear  on  the  part  of 
the  Magians,  and  the  number  of  the  martyrs, 
variously  calculated  from  sixteen  to  one  hundred 
and  ninety  thousand,  shows  how  the  Christian 
faith  had  already  honeycombed  the  Zoroastrian 
cult.  John,  a  bishop  of  the  Persian  Church,  as- 
sisted at  the  Council  of  Nice,  and  some  years  later 

de  VArmenie,  Paris,  1867).  See  also  Acta  SS.  Sept  viii.  295- 
413,  and  Le  Quien,  Oriens  Christianus,  vol.  i,  Eusebius  (H. 
E,,  ix.  8)  speaks  of  the  whole  Armenian  people  as  being  ''Chris- 
tians, and  zealous  in  their  piety  toward  the  Deity." 

^  The  statistics  of  the  Jewish  Diaspora  in  the  early  imperial 
period  are  collected  in  the  above-cited  work  of  Schiirer.  On 
the  apostolic  missions  in  Persia,  see  Lipsius,  Die  Apokryphen 
Apostelgeschichten,  4  vols. 

^  The  origins  of  these  national  churches  in  the  border-lands 
of  Rome  and  Persia  are  ably  discussed  in  the  above-cited  work 
of  Tixeront,  and  the  polemic  reply  of  the  Abb6  Martin. 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  EMPIRE.  235 

the  Persian  Christians  were  numerous  enough 
to  induce  Constantine  to  intercede  for  them  with 
Schapur.^ 

In  antiquity  the  Hmits  of  the  territory  known 
as  Arabia  were  only  vaguely  known,  and  the  suc- 
cess of  the  Roman  arms  was  never  complete  enough 
to  warrant  the  establishment  of  colonies.  The 
nomadic  manners  of  the  Arabs  or  Saracens,  and 
the  fanatic  Jewries  on  the  border,  were  great  ob- 
stacles to  the  spread  of  the  Christian  religion,  yet 
we  find  about  the  middle  of  the  third  century 
"very  many  bishops"  assembled  at  Bostra,  a  for- 
tified Roman  camp  on  the  plateau  of  the  Hauran, 
to  try  the  case  of  the  bishop  Beryllus  in  presence 
of  Origen.  A  Roman  general,  stationed  in  this 
neighborhood,  sought  the  instruction  of  that  great 
Christian  teacher,  as  did  Julia  Mammsea,  the 
mother  of  Alexander  Severus.  Finally,  a  contem- 
porary Roman  emperor,  Philip  the  Arab,  came 
from  the  vicinity  of  Bostra,  and  we  know  by  the 
testimony  of  Eusebius  that  he  was  commonly 
reputed  a  Christian.  The  doctrines  of  Judaism 
had  long  since  made  some  progress  among  the 
tribes  of  the  desert,  as  we  learn  from  Sozomen, 
and   they   were   the    usual   leverage    for   Christian 

^  See  Hefele,  History  of  the  Councils,  vol.  i.,  and  Tillemont, 
Mem.  p.  servir  d  Vhist.  ecclesiastique,  vii.  76. 


236  THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  EMPIRE. 

proselytism.  That  the  monks  and  ascetics  who 
fled  to  these  remote  regions  made  deep  impres- 
sions on  the  children  of  the  desert  is  evidenced 
by  the  strange  story  of  Queen  Mavia  and  the  soli- 
tary Moses. 

Isolated  Christian  captives  there  were  among 
the  Saracens,  as  among  the  Goths,  in  the  middle 
of  the  third  century.  Eusebius  relates  the  tender 
charity  and  concern  of  the  Roman  See  in  regard 
to  these  unfortunates.^  It  is  very  probable  that 
there  were  communities  of  Christians  in  the  Mala- 
bar peninsula  before  the  time  of  Constantine,  and 
the  history  and  teachings  of  Manes  reveal  the 
presence  of  Christianity  on  the  outermost  limits 
of   Persia.^ 

Trade  and  war,  travel  and  lettered  curiosity, 
must  have  scattered  a  sporadic  knowledge  of  its 
tenets  in  every  part  of  the  world  which  was  in 
any  way  known  to  the   peoples   of   Grseco-Roman 

^  Euseb.,  H.  E.,  vi.  33,  21,  34.  Sozomen,  Hist.  Ecc,  vi. 
38.  "Why  need  I  speak  of  the  multitude  that  wandered  in 
the  deserts  and  mountains  (of  Arabia),  and  perished  by  hun- 
ger, and  thirst,  and  cold,  and  sickness,  and  robbers,  and  wild 
beasts?"  Dionysius  of  Alexandria,  in  Euseb.,  H.  E,,  vi.  42. 
The  Roman  Church  redeemed  many  of  these  unfortunates 
from  the  captivity  of  the  Saracens,  Euseb.,  vii.  5. 

2  See  ''The  Christians  of  St.  Thomas"  in  The  Catholic  Ti77ies 
of  Philadelphia,  April  15,  1893,  and  the  articles  on  Manes 
and  Manichaeans,  in  Smith's  Dictionary  of  Christian  Biog- 
raphy. 


THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  EMPIRE  237 

culture.  It  is  literally  true  that  in  omnem  terram 
exivit  sonus  eorum.  The  pages  of  Eusebius  are 
full  of  the  conviction  that  Christianity  had  already 
become  numerically  a  huge  power  on  the  earth, 
with  which  henceforth  all  rulers  must  count.  He 
quotes  for  us  the  Edict  of  Maximinus  Daza  in 
which  he  admits  that  ''nearly  all  men"  had  deserted 
the  service  of  the  gods  (H.  E.,  ix.  9).  He  tells 
us  of  the  incredible  increase  of  Christianity  in  the 
days  immediately  preceding  the  persecution  of 
Diocletian.  He  paints  the  public  rejoicings  in 
every  city  at  the  release  of  the  martyrs,  and  the 
great  activity  in  church-building  and  works  of 
benevolence  consequent  on  the  cessation  of  the 
persecution.^  It  is  impossible  to  read  these  pages 
and  not  feel  that  what  the  genius  of  Melito  of 
Sardes  and  Origen  had  foreseen  was  now  come  to 
pass:^    the  empire  had  become  Christian  in  this 

* '  How  can  any  one  describe  those  vast  assemblies,  and 
the  multitude  that  crowded  together  in  every  city,  and  the 
famous  gatherings  in  the  house  of  prayer,  on  whose  accoimt, 
not  being  satisfied  with  the  ancient  buildings,  they  erected 
from  the  foundations  large  churches  in  all  the  cities." — Euseb., 
H.  E.,  viii.   1. 

2  Melito  boldly  parallels  the  rapid  spread  of  Christianity 
•with  the  contemporary  growth  of  the  Roman  name  and 
power,  and  insinuates  that  they  are  related  as  cause  and  ef- 
fect, Euseb.,  H.  E.,  iv.  26;  Otto,  Corpus  Apologetarum,  ix. 
p.  412.  The  number  and  influence  of  the  Christians  in  the 
Orient  might  easily  justify  the  vague  conviction  of  Origen 


238  THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  EMPIRE, 

sense,  that  the  religion  of  Christ  now  stood  out 
the  only  compact,  united,  vigorous,  and  aggressive 
religious  power  in  the  empire.  It  had  not  yet 
the  majority.  The  religious  philosophies  and  the 
ethnic  cults  lasted  on,  but  without  hope,  or  co- 
hesion, or  balance,  or  distinct  aim.  The  battle 
was  won,  and  the  division  of  the  spoils  might  be 
left  till  the  morrow.* 

From  the  above  or  similar  data  Gibbon  reckons 
the  Christian  population  of  the  empire  before  the 
conversion  of  Constantino  at  about  five  millions 
or  one-twentieth  of  the  population;  Keim,  Zockler, 
and  Chastel,  at  about  sixteen  millions;  while 
Schultze  puts  ten  millions  as  the  minimum  figure 
in  a  population  of  about  one  hundred  millions.^ 
The  Christians  were  surely  more  numerous  than 

that  the  religion  of  Christians  would  one  day  be  mistress  of 
the  empire,  "since  it  was  daily  winning  a  multitude  of  souls/' 
Adv.  Celsum,  viii.  68  (Migne,  P.  G.,  xi.  1620).  On  the  char- 
acter and  opinions  of  this  very  remarkable  bishop  of  the 
second  century,  see  Melito  von  Sardes,  by  C.  Thomas  (Osna- 
briick),  1893. 

*The  details  of  the  gradual  extirpation  of  paganism  are 
given  in  the  learned  and  rare  work  of  Beugnot,  Histoire  de  la 
destruction  du  Paganisme  en  Occident,  Paris,  1835,  and  Chas- 
tel, Histoire  de  la  destruction  du  Paganisme  dans  V Empire 
d' Orient,  Paris,  1850.  The  works  of  M.  Boisser,  La  Fin  du 
Paganisme,  Paris,  1891,  and  0.  Seeck,  Der  Untergang  der 
griechisch-roemischen  antiken  Welt,  Berlin,  1901,  are  written 
from  different  viewpoints,  but  are  both  valuable. 

'Schultze,  op.  cit.,  i.,  p.  22. 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  EMPIRE.  239 

the  Jews,  who  numbered  some  four  millions  within 
the  empire  at  this  period;  hence  the  figures  of  Gib- 
bon must  be  looked  on  as  too  low,  especially  as  the 
Orient  alone  would  easily  furnish,  from  modern 
calculations,   a  greater  number. 

(c)  Constituents  of  the  Christian  Society. 

The  Christian  society  of  the  third  century  was 
made  up  of  many  elements.  No  doubt  the  poor 
and  the  humble  were  in  a  great  majority.  But 
it  would  be  as  much  of  an  error  to  think  that 
slaves  were  very  numerous  in  it  as  to  imagine  that 
any  large  portion  of  the  Roman  aristocracy  had  ac- 
cepted the  teachings  of  Christ.  The  legal  position  of 
the  former  made  it  difficult  and  dangerous  to  prac- 
tise a  religion  which  their  masters  did  not  approve, 
and  the  public  duties  and  ambitions  of  the  latter 
found  in  Christianity  a  most  embarrassing  obstacle. 
In  the  higher  classes,  especially,  the  neglect  of 
the  Roman  religion  was  less  easily  tolerated  than 
in  the  motley  multitude. 

The  bulk  of  the  Christian  population  seems 
usually  to  have  been  made  up  of  the  middle  classes 
— ^the  free  poor,  the  small  tradesman  or  patron, 
artisans,  workers  in  metal  and  marble,  Greek  and 
Oriental  foreigners,*  etc. 

*See  Allard,  Les  Esclaves  Chretiens,  Paris,  1876.     It  is  the 


240  THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  EMPIRE. 

There  was  a  great  deal  of  travel  in  the  early  im- 
perial epoch/  and  every  large  church  counted 
on  its  feast-days  men  of  many  nationalities  within 
its  walls.  At  Alexandria  and  Antioch,  at  Nicomedia 
and  Trier  the  great  offices  of  state  were  frequently 
filled  by  Christians.  They  had  a  splendid  church 
at  Nicomedia,  built  upon  an  elevation,  and  the 
Old  Basilica  at  Antioch  was  not  without  a  certain 
magnificence.    St.    Optatus   of   Milevi   informs   us 


impression  which  the  Acts  of  the  Martyrs,  i.e.,  those  of  St. 
Justin,  and  the  complexion  of  the  Roman  Church  before  Con- 
stantine  make  upon  us.  The  Acts  of  St.  Pionius  of  Smyrna 
show  a  large  and  free  Christian  population  in  that  city  about 
A.D.  250.  And  the  wealth  of  the  Roman  Church  came  neither 
from  slaves  nor  entirely  from  her  noble  members.  On  the 
percentage  of  the  nobility  in  the  primitive  Church,  see  the 
Bulletins  of  De  Rossi,  s.v.  Nobilitas,  the  work  of  Dom  Gu^ 
ranger,  Sainte  Cecile  et  la  Societe  Romaine  aux  deux  'premiers 
sikcles  (3d  ed  ),  Paris,  1890,  and  Lanciani,  Pagan  and  Christian 
Rome.  The  kings  of  Edessa  were  Christian  from  the  end  of 
the  second  century  at  least.  Those  of  Armenia  were  converted 
a  century  later,  and  in  the  meantime  the  little  Greek  state  of 
the  Bosphorus  (Crimea)  had  become  largely  Christian.  It 
was  commonly  believed  that  the  Emperor  Philip  the  Arab 
and  his  family  were  Christian,  and  such,  too,  seem  to  have 
been  Julia  Mammaea,  the  distinguished  mother  of  Alexander 
Severus,  and  Salonina,  the  wife  of  Gallienus.  The  wife  and 
daughter  of  Diocletian  were  Christians  before  the  outbreak 
of  the  persecution.  When  "Csesar's  household"  did  not  es- 
cape, we  need  not  wonder  that  many  Csecilii,  Valerii,  Anicii, 
Glabriones,  Annii,  Probi,  Bassi,  Gra^cini,  and  like  families 
were  won  over  to  Christianity. 

*See  Weltverkehr  und  Kirche  in  den  drei  ersten  Jahrhunder- 
ten,  by  Th.  Zahn  (Hanover,  1877). 


THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  EMPIRE,  241 

that  early  in  the  fourth  century  they  had  over 
forty  churches  at  Rome,  and  Eusebius  tells  us  that 
before  the  last  persecution  there  was  a  very  great 
activity  in  church-building  throughout  the  em- 
pire. The  churches  began  already  to  possess  the 
cemeteries  in  their  own  right,  and  they  formed 
corporations  capable  of  holding  property  from 
the  time  of  Gallienus.  The  little  ''house-churches" 
had  long  since  given  way  to  a  peculiarly  Christian 
style,  for  the  basilica  form  was  not  first  adopted 
by  the  Christians  after  the  downfall  of  paganism 
— it  is  considerably  older,  and  some  maintain  that 
it  is  the  product  of  Christian  architectural  prog- 
ress in  the  third  century,  the  outcome  of  a  com- 
bination of  '-'house-church,''  catacomb-chapel,  and 
private  domestic  hall.^  Yet,  while  it  is  clear  that 
Christianity  was  very  widespread  in  the  last 
quarter  of  the  third  century,  we  must  make  due 
reservations;  it  was  met  with  chiefly  in  the  cities, 
much  less  in  the  open  country;  its  votaries  were 
far  more  numerous  in  the  East  than  in  the  West; 
their  public  status  was  in  a  transition  crisis  from 
the  primitive  period  when  the  powerful  and  con- 
temptuous state  scarcely  distinguished  them  from 
the  mob  of  Jews  to  the  hour  when  the  terrified 

^  See  the  article  on  Basilicas  in  the  Encyclopddie  of  Kraus. 


242  THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  EMPIRE. 

administration  recognized  that  the  whole  world 
was  honeycombed  with  the  new  doctrines  and 
the  hour  of  final  conflict  was  at  hand.  The  latter 
point  is  very  clear  from  the  history  of  Paul  of 
Samosata,  and  the  opening  reflections  of  Eusebius 
in  the  eighth  book  of  his  Church  History,  as  well 
as  from  the  epitaph  of  Pope  Eusebius  and  cer- 
tain remarks  of  St.  Cyprian  in  the  golden  booklet 
De  Lapsis, 

II. 

Causes  of  the   Rapid    Spread  of  Christianity.* 

(a)  Proselytism. — The  words  of  Christ  (Luke  iv. 
18;  19;  ix.  2)  could  leave  no  doubt  in  the  minds 
of  the  apostles  as  to  the  chief  means  by  which 
they  were  to  found  the  kingdom  of  God  in  the 
hearts  of  men.  It  was  by  oral  preaching,  by  per- 
sonal appeal  and  instruction.  They  understood 
from  the  beginning  that  they  were  above  all 
''ministers  and  captains"  of  the  Word  (Acts  v. 
12).  The  earliest  Christian  writers  present  the 
evayyeXioVj  the  Kr/pvyfiaj  the  public  official  proc- 
lamation of  the  history  and  the  teachings  of  Jesus 

^  The  writer  takes  for  granted  the  co-operation  of  super- 
natural agencies,  and  the  impossibility  of  explaining  by- 
natural  causes  alone  the  long  and  successful  resistance,  and 
the  ultimate  survival,  of  Christianity. 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  EMPIRE.  243 

Christ  as  the  ordinary  means  of  propagating  faith 
in  Him.  The  earliest  bits  of  Christian  biography, 
the  apocryphal  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  are  usually 
styled  preachings  or  circuits,  and  in  the  Christian 
literature  of  the  first  three  centuries  the  inculca- 
tion of  Christianity  is  called  a  teaching,  a  bearing 
of  witness/  In  the  days  of  the  first  vivid  en- 
thusiasm the  Christians  saw  many  quasi-inspired 
men,  called  prophets,  who  wandered  up  and  down 
the  world,  filled  with  a  holy  zeal,  discoursing  with 
more  than  human  eloquence,  often  rapt  beyond 
themselves,  omnipresent,  tireless,  aggressive,  well 
fitted  to  introduce  the  leaven  of  truth  into  a  tim- 
orous or  hesitating  community,  and  to  confirm  in 
the  accepted  faith  the  dubious  and  wavering. 
The  generation  of  these  ardent  souls  did  not  pass 
away  with  the  apostolic  times;  they  lived  on  into  the 
second  century.  There  are  echoes  of  their  missions 
in  Papias,  Polycarp,  Ignatius,  and  Hermas.  ''The 
Teaching  of  the  Twelve  Apostles"  shows  them 
yet  active  in  the  service  of  the  Catholic  Church,^ 
and  a  valuable  passage  of  Eusebius  leads  us  to 
believe  that  they  were  still  numerous  in  the  middle 

^Mark  xvi.  15;  II.  Tim.  iv.  17,;  Titus  i.  3.  The  apoc- 
ryphal Acts  of  the  Apostles  are  collected  and  examined  in 
the  great  work  of  Lipsius,  Die  Apokrijphen  Apostelgeschichten. 

2  See  Funk,  Opera  Patrum  Apostolicorum  (2  vols.,  8vo. 
Tiibingen,   1902). 


244  THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  EMPIRE. 

of  the  second  Christian  century.*  The  apostles 
left,  indeed,  a  regularly  constituted  hierarchy,' 
but  in  the  pioneer  days  of  Christianity  every  con- 
vert was  a  preacher,  devoured  with  the  desire  of 
compelling  all  men  to  enter  the  kingdom  of  God 
ere  the  fatal  hour  of  the  Second  Coming  of  the  Son 
of  man.^  The  duty  of  preaching  rested  chiefly 
upon  the  bishops,^  and  the  pages  of  Eusebius  show 

^  "For,  indeed,  most  of  the  disciples  of  that  time,  animated 
by  the  divine  word  with  a  more  ardent  love  for  philosophy 
(i.e.,  the  perfect  Christian  life),  had  already  fulfilled  the  com- 
mands of  the  Saviour  and  had  distributed  their  goods  to  the 
needy.  Then  starting  out  upon  long  journeys,  they  performed 
the  office  of  evangelists,  being  filled  with  the  desire  to  preach 
Christ  to  those  that  had  not  yet  heard  the  word  of  faith,  and 
to  deliver  to  them  the  divine  gospels.  And  when  they  had 
only  laid  the  foundations  of  the  faith  in  foreign  places,  they 
appointed  others  as  pastors,  and  entrusted  them  with  the  nur- 
ture of  those  that  had  recently  been  brought  in,  while  they 
themselves  went  on  again  to  other  countries  and  nations  with 
the  grace  and  co-operation  of  God.  For  a  great  many  won- 
derful works  were  done  by  them  through  the  power  of  the 
divine  Spirit,  so  that  at  the  first  hearing  whole  multitudes  of 
men  eagerly  embraced  the  religion  of  the  Creator  of  the  uni- 
verse."—Euseb.,  H.  E.  vii.  38. 

2  Epistle  of  St.  Clement  of  Rome  to  the  Corinthians,  c.  42, 
and  the  Epistles  of  St.  Ignatius  of  Antioch.  Cf.  Lightfoot, 
The  Apostolic  Fathers  (London,  1890). 

5  This  is  well  expressed  by  St.  Hilary  of  Poitiers:  "Ut  cres- 
ceret  plebs  et  multiplicaretur,  omnibus  inter  initia  conces- 
sum  et  evangelizare  et  baptizare  ...  at  ubi  omnia  loca  cir- 
cumplexa  est  ecclesia,  conventicula  constituta  sunt,  et  rec- 
tores,  et  caetera  officia  in  ecclesia  sunt  ordinata." — Comm. 
in  Ephes.,4:. 

*  Recognitions  of  Clement,  iii,  67.  ApostoLic  Constitutions, 
il  26. 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  EMPIRE.  245 

US  that  in  the  second  and  third  centuries  they  were 
men  of  great  eloquence  and  address,  and  extremely- 
active  in  disseminating  the  Christian  teachings. 
The  Catholic  Church  counts  to-day  among  her 
brightest  glories  such  pioneer  preachers  and  ad- 
ministrators of  the  divine  mandatum  as  Clement  of 
Rome,  Ignatius  of  Antioch,  Melito  of  Sardes,  Abir- 
cius  Marcellus,  Dionysius  of  Corinth  and  his  name- 
sake of  Alexandria,  Alexander  of  Jerusalem, 
Theophilus  of  Antioch,  ApoUinarius  of  Hierapolis, 
the  Roman  bishops  Victor,  Cornelius,  Dionysius, 
and  a  host  of  others  whose  names  and  missionary 
work  Eusebius  either  ignored  or  did  not  see  fit 
to  hand  down.  We  see  in  St.  Justin  a  second-cen- 
tury type  of  the  Christian  proselytizer,  clothed 
in  the  coarse  cloak  of  the  philosopher,  holding 
open  school  in  the  upper  rooms  of  a  friend's  house, 
disputing  with  Cynics  and  Jews  in  the  streets  of 
Rome  or  the  porticoes  of  Ephesus — bland,  insin- 
uating, supple  in  argument,  broken  to  all  the  dia- 
lectic exercise  of  the  time,  conciliating  and  adapt- 
ing, explaining  with  fullest  freedom  the  most  holy 
arcana  of  the  society,  at  once  Jew,  Greek,  and 
Roman,   that  he  might  gain  all  to  Christ.^    Not 

^  Acts  of  the  Martyrdom  of  St.  Justin  and  his  companions. 
Ruinart,  Acta  Martyrum  Sincera  (ed.  Ratisbon,  1859),  p.  105. 
See  his  Apology  and  Dialogue  with  Trypho  in  Otto,  Corpus 
Apologetarum  (vols,  i.,  ii.). 


246  THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  EMPIRE, 

only  the  bishops,  but  the  priests  and  deacons,  had 
a  special  mission  to  teach  and  instruct,  to  guide 
the  catechumens,  to  console  the  confessors  and 
prepare  them  for  martjrrdom,  to  collect  their  last 
words,  describe  the  scenes  of  their  holy  deaths, 
and  form  in  the  faith  of  Christ  the  new  converts 
that  every  execution  led  into  the  Church.^ 

Perhaps  there  is  in  all  ecclesiastical  history  no 
more  striking  example  of  proselyting  zeal  than 
the  great  Origen.  From  his  youth  he  burned  to 
spread  the  law  of  Christ,  and  took  up  the  public 
catechetical  schools  of  Alexandria  when  they 
stood  in  grave  peril  of  suppression  or  decay.  He 
formed  in  this  earliest  of  Christian  seminaries  the 
greatest  Christians  of  the  age;  he  attracted  mul- 
titudes of  pagans;  by  word  and  example  he  stirred 
up  the  sluggish  depths  of  men's  natures,  and  re- 
vealed to  the  astonished  gaze  of  Christians  and 
pagans  the  endless  adaptability  of  the  new  religion 
to  the  most  manifold  relations  of  society,  literature, 
civil  government,  and  human  progress.  He 
travelled  many  a  weary  mile  across  the  sands  of 
Arabia  to  convert  a  Roman  general,  and  crossed 
the   sea   to   expound   Christianity   to   Julia   Mam- 

^  "  Cruciate,  torque te,  damnate,  atterite  nos.  .  .  .  Pluries 
efficimur  quoties  metimur  a  vobis.  Semen  est  sanguis  marty- 
rum." — ^TertuUian,  Apologeticum,  c.  5. 


THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  EMPIRE.  247 

msea,  the  empress  mother  of  the  most  noble  and 
sympathetic  of  the  pagan  line  of  emperors.  His 
predecessor,  Pantsenus,  had  gone  on  a  similar  mis- 
sion to  India;  in  fact,  the  school  of  Alexandria 
was  a  centre  of  the  most  intelligent  proselytism 
up  to  the  time  of  Constantine.  We  could  not 
ask  for  any  better  proof  of  it  than  the  famous  letter 
of  Bishop  Theonas  of  Alexandria  to  Lucian,  the 
Christian  provost  of  the  imperial  chamberlains 
of  Diocletian.^ 

But  it  was  not  only  the  Church  authorities  who 
carried  on  the  proselytism  for  Christ.  All  the 
faithful  were  soldiers  of  the  Lord,  and  their  life 
was  looked  on  as  a  militia — an  existence  of  de- 
fensive and  offensive  warfare.^    The  most  frequent 

*See  Routh,  Reliquiae  Sacrae,  iii.  439.  It  contains  the 
proof  that  a  great  many  of  the  chief  officers  of  Diocletian's 
household  were  Christians,  but  its  chief  interest  lies  in  the 
directions  given  for  gradually  turning  the  attention  of  the 
emperor  to  the  Christian  faith.  "lUe  tamen  praecipuus  inter 
vos  erit  et  dihgentissimus  cui  libros  servandos  princeps  man- 
daverit  ...  si  igitur  ex  credentibus  in  Christum  ad  hoc 
ipsum  oflScium  advocari  contingat,  non  spemat  et  ipse  lit- 
teras  seculares  et  gentilium  ingenia,  quae  principem  oblec- 
tant.  Laudandi  oratores  .  .  .  laudandi  historic!  .  .  .  inter- 
dum  et  divinas  scripturas  laudari  conabitur,  .  .  .  laudabitur 
et  interim  evangelium,  apostolusque  (i.e.,  St.  Paul),  pro  di- 
vinis  oraculis:  insurgere  potent  Christi  mentio,  expHcabitur 
paulatim  ejus  sola  divinitas;  omnia  haec  cum  Christi  ad- 
jutorio  pro  venire  possent." 

^  Jesu  Christo  regi  eterno  milito,  says  the  martyr  Marcellus 
to  the  judg?.     Ruinart,  Acta  Sincera,  etc.     Maturus  is  called 


248  THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  EMPIRE. 

scene  of  these  holy  combats  was  the  family.  The 
influence  of  a  converted  mother  or  sister  was 
enormous.  The  change  in  the  female  conduct, 
the  suavity  and  devotion  of  their  lives,  the  in- 
creasing tenderness  and  pity  in  their  dealings  with 
the  slave,  the  poor,  and  the  unfortunate,  the  moral 
elevation  and  refinement  of  their  whole  being 
could  not  escape  the  notice  of  the  other  members 
of  the  family  circle.  We  may  gather  from  the 
pages  of  Tacitus  the  impression  that  the  conver- 
sion of  a  woman  like  Pomponia  Grsecina  made  on 
Roman  society.^  That  of  Priscilla,  Lucina,  Csecilia, 
the  Flavise  Domitillse  and  the  Acilise  Glabriones 
could  scarcely  do  less. 

Yet,  not  unfrequently,  the  most  bitter  oppo- 
sition came  precisely  from  the  family  of  the  con- 
vert; it  was  so  in  the  time  of  Tertullian,  and  some- 


generosissimus  pugil  Christi  in  the  Acts  of  the  Martyrs  of 
Vienne,  Militia  Dei  sumus,  Tert.,  De  Oratione,  c.  19.  Ex- 
hort ad  Martyres,  c.  3.  Compare  II.  Tim.  ii.  3;  I.  Cor.  ix. 
24;  I.  Tim.  i.  18;  II.  Cor.  x.  3. 

^  "  Longa  huic  Pomponiae  aetas,  et  continua  tristitia  fuit, .  .  . 
per  quadraginta  annos,  non  cultu  nisi  lugubri,  non  animo  nisi 
moesto  egit.  Idque  illi,  imperitante  Claudio  impune,  mox 
ad  gloriam  vertit."  Annates,  xiii.  32.  Before  this  she  had 
been  traduced  as  superstition  is  externae  rea,  and  acquitted 
by  the  domestic  council.  This  superstition  was  Christianity, 
the  exitiabilis  swperstitio  of  Tacitus  (Ann.  xiv.  44),  the  super- 
stitio  nova  et  malefica  of  Suetonius  (Nero  16),  and  the  super- 
stitio  prava  et  immodica  of  PUny  (Epp.  x.  96). 


THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  EMPIRE.  249 

what  later  Origen  classes  parents  among  the 
chief  persecutors  of  the  new  religion.^  The  prosely- 
tism  of  the  Christians  is  one  of  the  chief  objections 
that  Celsus  raises  against  the  faith,  and  in  his  re- 
plies Origen  manifests  much  pride  in  the  persistent 
devotion  to  Christ  of  poor  and  humble  people  of 
all  nations  and  classes.  He  points  out  that  many 
Christians  gave  themselves  up  entirely  to  mis- 
sionary work.^  And  when  the  pagan  philosopher 
insists  that  they  are  only  the  refuse  of  the  popula- 
tion, the  apologist  does  not  take  any  pains  to  deny 
it,  other  than  to  point  out  that  the  Christians  are 
not  without  some  wealthy  and  noble  members, 
especially  among  the  female  sex.^ 

This  domestic  apostolate  was  greatly  furthered 
by  the  Christian  slaves.     The  Acts  of  the  Martyrs 

'  "Sed  ad  Christianos  quod  spectat,  senatum  Romanum, 
imperatores  diversis  temporibus,  milites,  populos,  ipsos  eomm 
qui  crediderunt  parentes,  in  eorum  doctrinam  conspirasse." — 
Contra   Celsum,  i.   3. 

2  "  Inde  liquet  quod  Christiani,  quantum  in  se  est,  curent  ut 
quo  terrarum  cunque  sua  doctrina  spargatur  quo  fit  ut  qui- 
dam  id  sibi  negotium  desumpserint,  ut  non  solum  urbes,  sed 
etiam  vicos  et  villas  obambularent,  quo  alios  ad  pium  Dei 
cultum  adducerent." — Ihid.,  iii.  9. 

^Ihid.,\\\.  44,  55.  "In  privatis  aedibus  videre  est  lanifices, 
sutores,  fullones,  imperitissimum  quemque  et  rusticissimum 
coram  senioribus  .  .  .  nihil  audere  proloqui;  ubi  vero  seor- 
sum  nacti  fuerint  pueros  et  mulierculas  aeque  ac  ipsi  imperi- 
tas,  mira  qusedam  disserunt,"  etc.  Cf.  ihid.,  i.  27,  vj.  14,  and 
Peri  Archon,  iv.  1,  2- 


250  THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  EMPIRE. 

contain  numerous  evidences  of  the  religious  activity 
of  slaves,  and  the  lives  of  St.  Gregory  Nazianzen, 
St.  Monica,  and  St.  Paulinus  of  Nola  offer  evidence 
of  their  devotion  and  authority.  We  know  that 
at  one  period  they  exercised  much  influence  in 
the  household  of  Septimius  Severus,  that  the  wet- 
nurse  of  his  son  Caracalla  was  a  Christian/  and 
that  a  certain  Christian,  Proculus,  probably  a 
freedman,  cured  the  emperor  by  the  application  of 
oil. 

"Would  that  we  could  know/'  says  M.  Allard, 
"the  secret  of  those  domestic  missions  which  so 
vexed  the  pagan  soul  of  Celsus!  We  would  stand 
by  the  loom  of  the  weaver  and  hear  some  uncul- 
tured tongue  expound  the  divine  truths;  we 
would  see  young  working  girls  gathered  about 
some  venerable  toiler  and  listening  to  her  encomia 
on  the  sweets  of  purity;  we  might  even  push  aside 
the  great  doors  of  bronze  and,  lifting  the  heavy 
tapestries,  see  the  child  at  the  knee  of  a  Christian 
nurse,  the  youth  listening  to  his  pedagogue,   the 


*  Cruel  as  Caracalla  was,  there  are  several  reasons  for  be- 
lieving that  he  was  favorable  to  the  Christians:  his  early  edu- 
cation, his  aversion  to  sacrifices,  his  recalling  of  all  those  ban- 
ished to  the  islands,  his  vexation  at  the  punishment  of  his 
Christian  playmate,  the  comparative  peace  of  the  faithful 
during  his  reign.  (Cf.  Caracalla  in  Dictionary  of  Christian 
Biography.) 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  EMPIRE.  251 

master  learning  from  the  overseer  of  his  property, 
the  judge  instructed  by  the  martyr.  What  in- 
timate confi dings!  What  touching  revelations! 
What  sweetly  burning  tears!  We  would  see  then 
the  pure  and  divine  side  of  that  awful  institution 
of  slavery,  of  which  history  has  shown  us  only  the 
cruel  and  infamous  reverse.  One  day  it  is  a  noble, 
rich,  illustrious  family  that  enters  the  Church; 
again,  a  young  girl  suddenly  declares  her  intention 
of  leading  a  life  of  virginity;  on  another  occasion 
love  and  peace  descend  with  the  faith  into  a  house- 
hold where  hitherto  reigned  a  horrid  rivalry  in 
vice;  elsewhere  a  magistrate  lays  aside  the  trap- 
pings of  office  to  live  an  humble  and  charitable  life: 
all  the  while  the  world  looks  on  and  knows  not  the 
secret  springs  of  such  strange  resolutions,  but  some- 
where and  always  there  is  a  poor  slave  who  divide* 
with  the  Lord  a  secret  that  causes  his  heart  to 
overflow  with  heavenly  gladness.^'  * 


^  Paul  AUard,  Les  Esclaves  Chretiens,  p.  300.  An  interest- 
ing verification  of  the  above  is  furnished  by  the  sarcophagus 
of  Proxenes  in  the  Villa  Borghese  at  Rome.  The  original 
decoration  and  the  epitaph  are  purely  pagan,  but  one  of  his 
Christian  freedmen,  absent  from  Rome  at  the  time  of  his 
death,  has  left  us  the  secret  of  his  conversion  in  the  following 
mutilated  words  which  he  scratched  on  the  tomb:   Prosenes 

RECEPTUS      AD      DeuM   .    .    .    REGREDIENS      IN      UrBE      SCRIPSIT 

Ampelius     libertus.      De     Rossi,     Inscriptiones     ChristiancB 
Urbis  RomcBj  vol.  i.,  n.  5  (an.  217),  p.  9. 


252  THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  EMPIRE. 

(h)  Corporate  Union  of  Christians. — In  spite  of 
the  most  active  proseljrtism,  the  Christian  reHgion 
would  have  made  but  slow  progress  if  its  members 
had  not  established  some  system  of  frequent  as- 
sembly, enabling  them  to  meet  regularly  for  mutual 
edification  and  consolation.  That  they  did  so  is 
amply  proved  by  the  Acts  of  the  Martyrs,  the  re- 
pressive imperial  legislation,  the  literary  remains, 
and  the  venerable  monuments  of  the  pre-Constan- 
tinian  period.  But  how  was  it  possible  for  such 
numerous  bodies  of  men  to  meet  in  the  midst  of 
great  cities,  when  the  very  name  of  the  Christians 
was  outlawed?  From  the  time  of  Nero,  Chris- 
tianity was  an  illicit  religion.  Non  licet  esse  vos 
was  the  watchword  of  heathen  society,  and  might 
have  been  written  over  the  door  of  every  meeting- 
place  of  the  Christians.  To  the  traditional  Roman 
statesman  the  Christian  appeared  as  one  who 
violated  fundamental  laws  of  the  state.  He  in- 
troduced a  foreign  superstition  and  a  new  cult 
without  the  permission  of  the  senate  or  the  em- 
peror. He  was  guilty  of  high  treason  by  refusing 
even  the  simplest  act  of  worship  to  the  genius  of 
perenduring  Rome.  He  manifested  an  obstinacy 
against  the  sacred  state  which  was  absolutely  in- 
comprehensible to  the  magistrates,  when  they 
only    asked    an    outward    compliance,    and    cared 


THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  EMPIRE.  253 

little  or  nothing  for  his  intimate  convictions.  He 
belonged  to  a  forbidden  society,  and  actions  for 
sacrilege  and  the  practice  of  criminal  magic  could, 
in  the  opinion  of  Roman  lawyers,  be  brought 
against  him.  In  a  word,  he  lived  in  a  time  when 
all  the  civil  and  religious  elements  of  society  were 
inextricably  interwoven,  and  a  new,  exclusive, 
proselytizing,  universal  religion  could  not  help 
offending  at  every  step  a  civil  order  which  was  at 
once  the  outgrowth  and  solid  proof  of  idolatry.^ 
It  is  true  that  there  were  long  periods  of  peace  for 
the  Christians  under  emperors  like  Commodus 
and  Caracalla,  Alexander  Severus  and  Gallienus, 
and  in  the  forty  years  preceding  the  last  persecu- 
tion the  laws  were  on  the  statute-books,  but  were 
not  enforced.  Fanaticism  was  wearied  and  silent. 
The  emperors  discouraged  or  forbade  pursuit  of 
Christians,  who,  on  the  other  hand,  were  becom- 
ing so  numerous  that  nothing  short  of  wholesale 
extermination  could  uproot  the  evil. 

^  The  legal  position  of  Christianity  in  the  early  imperial 
period  is  the  subject  of  an  exhaustive  study  by  the  Christian 
epigraphist  Le  Blant:  Sur  les  bases  juridiques  des  poursuites 
dirigees  contre  les  Martyres,  in  the  proceedings  of  the  Academy 
of  Inscriptions  and  Belles  Lettres,  vol.  ii.  (Paris,  1868),  pp. 
358-373.  See  also  the  article  Christenverfolgungen  in  Kraus' 
Real-Encyclopddie,  i.,  p.  215.  According  to  Lactantius  (Div. 
Inst.,  V.  ii.),  the  great  jurist  Ulpian  went  so  far  as  to  codify 
the  numerous  laws  directed  against  the  Christians  in  a  work 
entitled  De  officio  proconsulis. 


254  THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  EMPIRE. 

Nevertheless  there  was  a  period  especially  dur- 
ing the  second  century  when  Christianity  had  not 
yet  wearied  its  persecutors,  and  when  the  laws 
were  regularly  applied  to  work  its  eradication.^ 
How  did  the  vast  network  of  Christian  associations 
manage  to  exist  during  this  latter  period  without 
being  constantly  broken  up  and  forced  to  aban- 
don the  strong  leverage  which  they  had  in  their 
regular  reunions  on  stated  days  and  in  fixed 
places?  Much  light  has  been  thrown  upon  this 
question  within  the  last  half-century  by  the  re- 
searches of  archaeologists  and  illustrators  of  the 
civil  law.  In  the  ancient  world  scarcely  any  in- 
stitution was  dearer  to  the  masses  of  the  people 
than  the  right  of  association.  While  the  demo- 
cratic or  republican  spirit  endured  in  Greece  and 
Rome  this  natural  right  was  held  sacred,  and 
we  have  a  multitude  of  epigraphic  evidences  to 
show  that  there  existed  a  vast  network  of  societies 
for  every  imaginable  purpose — trade  guilds,  re- 
ligious sodalities,  confraternities,  collegia  for  every 
grade  and  avocation  among  the  bourgeois  and 
the  poor,  while  the  Roman  patriciate  found  in 
its  traditions,  its  wealth,  its  business,  and  political 
franchises,  the  consolation  and  strength  that  the 

*Cf.  Renan,  Marc-Aurele,  pp.  53,  302,  and  Allard,  Hist, 
des  persecutions  pendant  les  deux  premiers  siecles,  i.  329-388. 


THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  EMPIRE.  255 

poor  sought  in  their  association  or  college.^  It 
was  a  result  of  the  Greek^s  aversion  to  quiet  family 
life,  that  he  threw  himself  with  ardor  into  exter- 
nal associations.  Long  before  the  coming  of 
Christ,  men  united  at  Athens,  Rhodes,  and  on  the 
islands  for  purposes  of  business  or  pleasure,  to 
insure  against  loss  by  fire,  and  to  honor  some  par- 
ticular deity.  The  meetings  were  held  in  some 
retired  garden,  surrounded  with  porticoes,  and 
provided  wit^i  a  central  altar  of  sacrifice.  Digni- 
taries, chosen  by  lot,  and  an  elective  president 
carried  on  the  government  of  the  little  state,  for 
such  it  was  in  many  cases,  the  members  being  pas- 
sionately attached  to  this  second  and  artificial 
family.  There  was  a  common  treasury,  and  mu- 
tual benevolence  played  a  large  share  in  the  trans- 
actions of  these  curious  forerunners  of  our  modern 
social  reunions.  They  were  a  kind  of  harmless 
freemasonry,  in  which  were  preserved  some  of  the 
better  traits  of  the  old  Hellenic  life.^  Whether 
the   Romans  adopted  these  associations  from  the 

^  Mommsen,  De  Collegiis  et  Sodaliciis  Romanorum,  Kiliae, 
1843.  Boissier,  La  Religion  Romaine  aux  temps  des  Antonins, 
Paris,  1884,  vol.  ii,,  p.  238,  Les  Classes  inferieures  et  les 
Associations  populaires.  Doulcet,  Rapports  de  VEglise  et  de 
VEtat  aux  trois  premiers  siecles,  Paris,  1883,  pp.  152-164;  Bois- 
sier, Promenades  Archeologigues,  Paris,  1887  (Rome  et  Pom- 
peii, p.  183). 

2  Fouquet,   Des  Associations  religieuses  chez  les  Grecs. 


256  THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  EMPIRE. 

Greeks  or  formed  them  from  natural  inclination, 
they  existed  in  great  numbers  in  the  period  im- 
mediately before  and  after  Christ.  In  the  earlier 
times  they  had  a  religious  character,  but  became 
eventually,  in  the  last  days  of  the  Republic,  the 
prey  of  political  demagogues,  and  were  thence- 
forward, under  the  dictators  and  the  emperors  of 
the  first  two  Christian  centuries,  the  object  of  much 
repressive    legislation/    They    were    either    com- 


^  Trajan  was  so  severe  on  the  collegia  that  he  would  not  allow 
the  citizens  of  a  Bithynian  city  to  unite  in  forming  a  fire  bri- 
gade, Pliny,  Epp.  x.  93.  It  is  worth  noting,  as  an  index  of 
the  profound  democratic  current  in  the  Church,  that  in  every 
century  she  has  encouraged  the  formation  and  protected  the 
rights  of  a  multitude  of  particular  societies,  confraternities, 
institutes,  associations,  guilds,  sodalities,  etc.  The  more 
absolute  the  sway  and  influence  of  Christianity,  the  deeper 
the  respect  of  individual  rights  and  the  larger  the  freedom 
of  the  citizen.  On  this  score  the  much  maligned  Middle  Ages, 
with  their  rich  and  beneficent  puUulation  of  private  associa- 
tions, may  challenge  the  golden  days  of  the  military  despot- 
ism of  the  old  and  the  new  Csesars,  or  the  blighting  and  crush- 
ing bureaucracy  of  New  Rome  or  modern  Europe.  See  the 
eloquent  admission  of  Renan,  Les  Apotres  (vol.  ii.  of  Les  Ori- 
gines  du  Christianisme) ,  p.  363: 

"Nos  grandes  soci^tes  abstraites  ne  sont  pas  suffisantes 
pour  repondre  k  tous  les  instincts  de  sociabilite  qui  sont  dans 
I'homme.  Laissez  le  mettre  son  coeur  h  quelque  chose,  cher- 
cher  la  consolation  oft  il  la  trouve,  se  cre^r  des  fr^res,  con- 
tracter  des  liens  de  cceur.  Que  la  main  froide  de  I'etat 
n'intervienne  pas  dans  ce  royaume  de  la  liberte.  La  vie,  la 
joie  ne  renaitront  dans  le  monde  que  quand  notre  defiance 
contre  les  collegia,  ce  triste  heritage  du  droit  romain,  aura 
disparu." 


THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  EMPIRE.  257 

pletely  forbidden,  or  allowed  only  with  the  greatest 
difficulty. 

Whereas  originally  every  trade  and  industry, 
every  god  indigenous  or  foreign,  every  nation  or 
city  or  great  family  had  its  special  body  of  asso- 
ciates bearing  its  name  and  serving  its  interests, 
the  military  rulers  of  the  city  allow  henceforth 
only  the  very  poorest  and  the  most  wretched  to 
unite,  and  then  only  for  purposes  of  mutual  burial.^ 
The  men  of  antiquity  held  very  dear  a  proper 
burial  among  their  own,  and  scarcely  anything 
is  more  touching  than  the  pains  which  they  took 
to  secure  it.  The  Csesars,  therefore,  could  not 
take  from  the  poor  man  or  the  slave  their  only 
chance  possible  of  obtaining  decent  sepulture, 
with  the  post-mortem  honors  of  flowers,  libations, 
and  anniversary  banquets.  They  were  permitted 
to  combine  for  this  purpose,  and  this  is  the  origin 
of  the  famous  collegia  tenuiorum  or  the  collegia 
funeraticia,  which  suggested  to  the  outlawed  mem- 
bers of  the  Christian  religion  a  legal  issue  from 
their  proscribed  condition,  or  at  least  the  securing 
of  a  legal  right  to  meet  publicly,  under  cover  of 
attending  to  the  business  of  a  mutual  burial  as- 
sociation. 

^  See  some  remnants  of  the  ancient  legislation  in  the  Cor- 
pus juris  civilis,  xlvii.  22.     De  collegiis  et  corporibus. 


258  THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  EMPIRE. 

Such  colleges  had  a  constitution,  or  lex  collegii, 
a  regular  election  of  officers,   a  treasury,  or  area 
communis,  a  schola,   or    place    of    meeting.     They 
collected  from  each  new  member  a  fixed  sum  on 
entering,  and  at  the  death  of  a  member  a  small 
tax  was  levied   on  the   survivors.     On   the   other 
hand,  they  looked  about  for  rich  friends  and  pa- 
trons,  from  whose  gifts  and  legacies   they  might 
pay  a  fixed  sum  to  all  who  attended  the  funeral, 
and   offer   to   the   societaires   frequent   anniversary 
feasts.    They    were    supposed    to    meet    monthly. 
They  buried  their  dead,   sometimes  in  columhariay 
or  square  chambers  filled  up  on  all  four  sides  with 
small   niches   for   the   rn^ns   containing   the   ashes, 
sometimes  in  their  own  small  cemeteries.      Where 
the  body  was  lost  or  irrecoverable,  they  gave  an 
imaginary     funeral     {funus    imaginarium).     These 
humble   associations   furnished   the   needed   frame- 
work  for   the   public   life   of   the   Christians,    who 
could  not  be  ignorant  of  them,   as  thousands  of 
their    proselytes    came    from    just    such    societies. 
The   Christians  desired  very  much  to  bury  their 
dead  apart,  when  possible,  not  only  from  the  cor- 
porate  affection   they   bore   to   one   another,    but 
because  they  did  not  burn  the  remains  of  their 
dead  as  did  most  pagans.    Moreover,  the  gather- 
ings of  these  societies  were  often  large;    they  in- 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  EMPIRE.  259 

eluded  both  sexes,  and  men  of  all  classes;  there 
were  many  of  them  in  the  city,  and  in  time  the 
laws  were  so  softened  as  to  permit  their  meeting 
for  religious  purposes  as  often  as  they  wished. 
Later  on  there  sprang  up  beside  them  tolerated 
societies  of  cultores  deorum,  or  votaries  of  some 
particular  god  or  goddess,  and  in  the  third  cen- 
tury, during  the  relaxation  of  persecution,  the 
latter  societies  became  quite  numerous.  A  friori, 
therefore,  it  is  not  improbable  that  the  Christians 
could  associate  in  this  manner,  the  only  legal  out- 
let left  to  them,  as  far  as  we  know.^    That  they 

*  M.  Gaston  Boissier  sums  up  satisfactorily  the  points  of 
contact  between  the  pagan  and  the  Christian  burial  clubs: 
''Les  ressemblances  sont  en  effet  tres  nombreuses  entre  les 
associations  des  deux  cultes.  Les  Chretiens  possedent  aussi 
une  caisse  commune,  alimentee  par  les  contributions  des 
fideles;  chez  eux  aussi  les  contributions  se  payent  tous  les 
mois;  ils  n'ont  pas  moins  de  souci  de  la  sepulture  de  leurs 
morts,  et  I'Eglise  a  de  depenser  une  grande  partie  de  ses  reve- 
nue k  construire  ses  immenses  cimetieres.  Des  deux  c6t6s  le 
respect  de  la  hierarchic  sociale  se  m^le  k  un  grand  esprit 
d'6galit6;  les  morts  de  toute  condition  sont  confondus  dans 
les  columbaria  comme  dans  les  catacombes.  C'est  le  suf- 
frage de  tous  qui  nomme  les  chefs,  et  il  va  quelquefois  cher- 
cher  le  plus  humble  pour  le  mettre  a  la  premiere  place.  Au 
moment  ou  de  pauvres  affranchis  arrivent  aux  dignites  les 
plus  elevees  des  colleges,  un  ancien  esclave,  le  banquier  Cal- 
liste,  s'asseoit  sur  la  chaise  de  Pierre  que  devait  occuper  un 
Cornelius.  Enfin,  les  repas  communs  ont  autant  d'impor- 
tance  dans  les  reunions  des  Chretiens  que  dans  les  associations 
paiennes;  I'Eglise  celebre  dans  toutes  ses  f6tes  le  festin  frater- 
nel  des  agapes,  et,  pour  honorer  des  martyrs,  les  fideles  dinent 


260  THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  EMPIRE. 

actually  did  is  in^nuated  by  a  text  of  Textullian 
in  the  thirty-ninth  chapter  of  his  Apology.  He 
is  speaking  precisely  of  licit  and  illicit  associations, 
and  is  trying  to  prove  that  the  Christians  belong 
to  the  first  category.  ''Our  treasure/'  says  he, 
"when  we  have  one,  is  not  made  up  of  the 
large  contributions  of  ambitious  persons  who  seek 
honor;  it  is  not  by  putting  up  our  religion  at 
auction  that  we  increase  our  wealth.  Each  one 
brings  monthly  a  modest  contribution.  He  pays 
if  he  wishes  to,  and  as  he  wishes,  or,  rather,  as  he 
can;  no  one  is  compelled  to  give.  The  contri- 
butions are  voluntary.  We  look  upon  that  money 
as  a  pious  fund  which  we  do  not  spend  in  eating 
or  drinking  nor  in  indecent  orgies.  It  helps  to 
feed  the  poor  and  to  bury  them,  to  rear  the  or- 
phans of  both  sexes,  and  to  support  the  aged." 
When  we  compare  these  apposite  words  of  Ter- 
tullian  with  one  of  the  textus  classici  on  the  burial 
societies,  we  cannot  help  feeling  that  he  is  refer- 
ring to  a  similar  organization  of  the  Christian 
body.*    It  is  true  that   the   Christians   were   not 


sur  leurs  tombeaux  k  I'anniversaire  de  leur  mort." — La  Re- 
ligion Romaine,  ii.,  p.  300. 

^  "Mandatis  principalibus  prsecipitur  prsesidibus  provinciarum 
ne  patiantur  esse  collegia  sodalicia,  neve  milites  in  castris 
collegia  habeant.  Sed  permittitur  tenuioribus  stipem  men- 
struam  conferre  dum  tamen  semel  in  mense  coeant,  ne  sub 


THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  EMPIRE.  261 

afraid  to  proclaim  their  numbers  openly.  Ter- 
tullian  himself,  in  a  famous  passage  already  cited 
(ApoL,  c.  37),  vaunts  their  multitude,  and  the 
imperial  police  could  not  be  ignorant  of  the  fre- 
quent councils  held  in  the  latter  quarter  of  the 
second  century.  But  at  the  beginning  of  the 
third  century  the  Church  became  the  possessor  of 
landed  estates  in  the  shape  of  cemeteries,  once 
the  property  of  individuals,  but  which  a  series 
of  circumstances  threw  into  her  hands.  Her  in- 
creasing wealth  demanded  some  secure  title  by 
which  it  might  be  protected  from  the  xmfaithful 
steward  *  as  well  as  from  the  pagan  informer  or  the 
apostate.  This  title  was  at  hand  in  the  character 
of  a  burial  association,  which  form  of  reunion  be- 
came extremely  popular  at  this  very  juncture,  and 
was  extended  by  imperial  rescript  from  Rome  to 
the  provinces.  Such  a  privilege  was  of  the  highest 
importance  for  the  propagation  of  Christianity. 
It  gave  the  religion,  in  times  of  peace,  a  working 
legality,  to  say  the  least.  It  permitted  public 
meetings,    the    excavation    of    catacombs,    election 

praetextus  hujusmodi  illicitum  collegium  coeat,  quod  non 
tantum  in  urbe  sed  et  in  Italia  et  in  provinciis  locum  habere 
divus  quoque  Severus  rescripsit." — Digest,  XXXXVII.  22,  1. 
^  "Nicostratum  multorum  criminum  reum  .  .  .  Ecclesice  de- 
posita  non  modica  abstulisse  .  .  .  Spoliati  ab  illo  pupilli,  frau- 
datae  viduse,  pecunice  quoque  ecclesice  denegatse." — St.  Cyprian, 
Evp.  50-32   (ed.   Hartel). 


262  THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  EMPIRE. 

of  officers,  mutual  consultation,  enrolment  of  nobles, 
women,  foreigners,  slaves,  etc.  Her  wealthy  mem- 
bers might  easily  assume  the  role  of  patrons  that 
others  of  the  same  class  played  in  the  pagan  cor- 
porations. 

The  regular  distributions  of  the  Church  to  the 
clergy,  the  widows,  the  poor,  and  the  strangers 
could  easily  be  carried  on  at  these  semi-legal  meet- 
ings, for  the  pagans  were  wont  to  give  out  special 
rations  and  even  money  on  such  occasions.  It 
is  worth  noticing  that  the  Liher  Pontificalis  at- 
tributes to  this  period  and  to  Callixtus,  the  deacon 
of  Zephyrin,  the  establishment  or  renovation  of 
THE  CEMETERY  par  excellence,  to  which  his  name 
was  afterwards  attached.^  And  the  mentions  of 
ecclesiastical  property  at  Rome  and  elsewhere 
become  henceforth  more  numerous,  yet  so  that 
the  areae  and  cemeteria  form  the  nucleus  of  the 
growing  estates  of  the  infant  churches.  Thus, 
when  Gallienus  restores  the  confiscated  property 
of  the  Christians,  the  cemeteries  figure  at  the 
head  of  the  list,  and  when  Maxentius  does  the 
same,  forty  years  later,  the  burial-places  are  still 
the  solid  block  of  ecclesiastical  wealth.  De  Rossi 
conjectures  that  the  bishop  was  always  inscribed 
as  syndic  or  agent  of  these  associations,  in  accord- 

^  Liber  Pontificalis  (ed.  Duchesne),  i.  141. 


THE  CHURCH  AND   THE  EMPIRE.  263 

ance  with  a  prescription  of  the  civil  law,  and  he 
elucidates  with  much  skill,  by  the  aid  of  this  sup- 
position, the  very  tangled  chronology  of  the  Roman 
episcopal  succession  in  the  first  decade  of  the  fourth 
century/ 

^  The  arguments  of  De  Rossi  are  neatly  summed  up  by 
Northcote  and  Brownlow  in  their  Roma  Sotterranea,  i.,  pp. 
103-9.  On  the  interesting  question  of  the  Roman  confra- 
ternities cf.  Mommsen  and  Marquardt,  Romische  Staatsver- 
waltung,  iii.  131-142;  and  Boissier,  La  Religion  Romaine 
aux  temps  dcs  Antonins  (Paris,  1884),  vol.  ii.,  pp.  239-304. 
Loening  in  his  Geschichte  des  deutschen  Kirchenrechts,  and  Al- 
lard  in  his  Histoire  des  Persecutions  pendant  la  premiere  moitie 
du  Ille  siecle,  give  valuable  details  on  the  use  of  the  civil 
right  of  association  among  the  Christians.  See  also  Cagnat, 
L'Armee  Romaine  d'Afrique  (Paris,  1892),  p.  457,  for  the  mili- 
tary colleges  and  savings  associations. 


A  CHRISTIAN  POMPEII/ 

Oriental  history  offers  no  more  splendid  and 
picturesque  pageant  than  the  story  of  Syria. 
Placed  midway  between  East  and  West,  across 
the  path  of  the  world's  great  conquerors,  it  has 
had  a  fateful  share  in  all  the  great  dynastic  and 
religious  revolutions  of  the  past.  If  its  people 
have  been  more  or  less  passive  observers,  humble 
victims  of  great  ambitions,  the  soil  itself  has  been 
the  theatre  on  which  the  mightiest  games  of  state- 
craft and  conquest  have  been  played  out.  In  the 
course  of  ages  it  has  been  the  prey  of  Assyrians, 
from  whom  it  takes  its  name;  of  Egyptians,  Per- 
sians, Greeks,  Romans,  Armenians,  Arabs,  Tur- 
comans,   Mongols,    Mamelukes,  and   the    Ottoman. 

The  original  independence  of  the  small  king- 
doms  into    which    it    was    once    divided    was   lost 

*  The  reader  may  consult  with  profit  the  monumental  work  of 
Count  Melchior  de  Vogiie,  U Architecture  civile  et  religieuse  de  la 
Syrie  Centrale  (Paris,  1865-77) ;  also,  the  preface  of  R.ev.  George 
Williams  to  Neale's  posthumous  Patriarchate  of  Antioch  (London, 
1873),  and  Choisy,  L'Art  de  hdtir  chez  les  Byzantins  (Paris, 
1882). 

265 


266  A   CHRISTIAN  POMPEII. 

some  eight  centuries  before  our  era,  since  when 
the  inhabitants  of  this  rich  land  have  known  only 
changes  of  servitude.  Under  the  successors  of 
Alexander  the  Great  the  arts  and  sciences  of 
Greece  were  introduced  among  the  Semitic  peoples 
of  Syria,  and  a  Western  culture  and  refinement 
superimposed  upon  the  older  Oriental  civiliza- 
tions. In  time  the  Roman  legion  supplanted  the 
Macedonian  phalanx,  and  for  several  centuries 
Syria  partook  of  the  Roman  destinies,  becoming 
an  integral  part  of  the  vast  mass  of  Mediterranean 
empire  which  the  military  genius  and  statesman- 
ship of  Rome  had  welded  and  riveted  in  almost  in- 
dissoluble cohesion.  Roughly  speaking,  it  was  on 
the  soil  of  Syria,  between  the  Tigris  and  the  great 
inland  sea,  that  Rome  and  Parthia  disputed  the 
mastery  of  the  world  in  the  ever-memorable  days 
from  Sylla  to  Trajan,  and  four  centuries  later  the 
same  blood-soaked  soil  was  trampled  by  the  locust- 
like armies  of  Persia,  swooping  down  upon  the 
defenceless  provinces  of  the  decaying  Roman 
State.  Rome  and  Persia  mutually  exhausted  one 
another  in  three  centuries  of  almost  incessant  war- 
fare, only  to  clear  the  way  for  Mohammed  and  the 
fanatic  children  of  the  desert.  Since  about  the  middle 
of  the  seventh  century  of  our  era  Islam  has  held 
almost  imbroken  sway  over  Syria,  interrupted  only 


A   CHRISTIAN  POMPEII.  267 

by  the  ephemeral  conquests  of  Byzantine  Emperors 
and  the  Crusaders.'  With  Islam  the  national  Semi- 
tism  of  Syria  has  revived,  and  of  the  thousand 
years  of  Grseco-Roman  culture  there  remain  but 
ruins  and  souvenirs. 

The  long,  broad  stretch  of  land  which  forms 
the  easternmost  shore  of  the  Mediterranean  is 
cut  up  from  north  to  south  by  several  parallel 
mountain  ranges  intercepted  at  short  intervals 
by  natural  passes,  through  which  the  rivers  of 
the  western  seaboard  discharge  their  waters.  It 
was  in  antiquity  a  land  of  noble  forests,  but  is 
now  comparatively  bare  of  trees.  The  valleys  and 
plains  are  naturally  fertile,  but  demand  much 
irrigation.  Long  centuries  ago  artificial  systems 
were  extensively  applied,  notably  on  the  eastern 
boundaries;  the  Arab  conquest  has  now  cast  a 
blight  upon  the  land,  the  desert  encroaches  on 
the  tilled  soil,  and  with  it  the  predatory  Bedouin, 
the   natural   enemy   of  the   industrious   peasantry. 

Here  and  there  on  the  eastern  slopes  toward 
the  Euphrates  there  are  isolated  oases,  but  as  a 
rule  the  eye  rests  only  on  long  stretches  of  steppes 
and  swamps,  which  were  once  good  arable  land, 
producing  barley,  wheat,  and  corn,  and  guarded 
from   the    Saracen   tribes   by   the   Roman   castles 


268  A   CHRISTIAN  POMPEII, 

built  far  in  the  interior  of  the  tribesmen's  country 
as  a  sort  of  desert  pohce.  In  the  better  culti- 
vated western  parts  of  Syria  there  is  a  considerable 
trade  in  raw  silks,  tobacco,  soap,  wines,  sponges, 
oranges,  and  olives.  But  its  commercial  impor- 
tance has  sadly  diminished  since  the  discovery 
of  America  and  the  consequent  abandonment  of 
the  overland  routes  to  India.  Palmyra  and  Petra 
in  the  early  ages  of  our  era,  Aleppo  and  Syrian 
Tripoli  in  mediseval  times,  enjoyed  the  commer- 
cial supremacy  which  suddenly  passed  to  Lisbon 
and  the  nations  of  the  West.  The  population, 
once  ten  millions,  has  sunk  to  less  than  two  mil- 
lions, of  which  the  vast  majority  is  Mohammedan. 
The  minority  is  divided  between  the  Jews  and 
Christians.  There  are  some  half-heathen  Ansarieh 
in  the  North  and  a  small  remnant  of  the  curious 
mediseval  tribe  of  the  Assassins. 

Syria  is  pre-eminently  the  land  of  ruins.  Even 
the  ancient  Canaanite  and  Phoenician  peoples 
have  left  their  mark  in  the  great  olive  and  wine 
presses  of  stone  and  the  profound  artificial  caverns 
in  the  mountain  sides.  The  Hittites  and  the  As- 
syrians, the  Nabatsean  princes  and  the  Ghassanides 
have  also  left  traces  of  their  passage  on  inscribed 
stones  and  on  the  massive  rock  walls  of  the  passes 


A   CHRISTIAN  POMPEII,  269 

in  the  hills.  It  was  only  the  other  day  that  the 
Holy  City  of  the  warlike  Hittites  was  recognized 
not  far  from  Horns,  the  ancient  Emesa.  But  by 
far  the  greater  part  of  the  ruins  of  Syria  are  those 
of  the  Greek  and  Roman  civilizations.  They 
stretch  away  mile  upon  mile,  a  very  luxuriance  of 
shattered  walls  of  granite  and  toppling  columns 
of  marble.  They  are  the  precious  quarries  out  of 
which  the  Arab  has  built  his  mosques  and  his 
dwelling-places,  and  out  of  which  modern  scholars 
draw  the  most  useful  information  upon  matters 
of  ancient  history,  legends,  mythology,  art,  and 
the  manners  and  habits  of  the  Grseco-Roman 
world. 

Under  the  cloudless  skies  of  this  charming  land 
and  among  an  unprogressive  or  nomadic  people 
these  splendid  relics  of  remote  ages  have  been 
suffered  to  exist,  subject  to  few  other  adverse  in- 
fluences than  the  local  earthquakes  and  the  natural 
wear  and  tear  of  the  passing  centuries.  Here 
and  there  the  domed  tombs  of  Arab  saints,  the 
castles  of  the  Crusaders  and  the  minarets  of  the 
Mohammedan  mosques  relieve  the  monotony  of 
ruined  temples,  tombs,  villas,  and  cities,  once  the 
architectonic  dress  of  the  most  elegant  and  hu- 
mane of  civilizations.  The  ruins  of  ancient  Tyre 
are  yet  visible  beneath  the  encroaching  waves  of 


270  A   CHRISTIAN  POMPEII. 

the  Mediterranean,  and  in  the  neighborhood  stand 
yet  the  walls  and  pillars  of  the  great  cathedral 
whose  dedication  sermon  was  preached  by  Eusebius, 
and  whose  beauties  have  been  described  by  the 
same  eloquent  pen  in  the  first  quarter  of  the  fourth 
century.  The  site  of  Sidon,  the  Venice  of  an- 
tiquity, is  yet  visible,  and  the  immense  shell  heaps, 
the  refuse  of  the  great  purple-dying  factories,  still 
encumber  the  earth. 

The  traveller  may  yet  trace  the  remains  of  an- 
cient Antioch,  the  Queen  of  the  Orient,  its  huge  quad- 
rilateral, its  three  hundred  towers,  the  great  rock 
citadel,  the  embankment  of  Justinian,  and  other  his- 
torical landmarks  familiar  to  the  readers  of  ancient 
history.  The  marble  colonnades  of  Baalbek  and 
Palmyra  are  still  in  part  erect.  Whole  cities  still 
stand  in  silent  desolation,  crumbling  by  inches, 
like  the  magnificent  Apamsea  (Hamah)  and  the 
great  rock  city  of  Petra,  with  its  temples,  colon- 
nades, palaces,  and  tombs  hewn  out  of  the  face 
of  the  red  sandstone  cliffs,  a  replica  of  the  Bud- 
dhist rock  temples  of  EUora  and  Ajanta.  Wher- 
ever one  goes  in  this  marvellous  land  he  stumbles 
upon  extensive  ruins,  whose  names  and  destination 
are  too  often  undecipherable.  He  moves  sadly 
among  marble  porticos  and  fallen  palaces,  and 
finds  on  all  sides 


A   CHRISTIAN  POMPEII.  271 

Weed  and  wallflower  grown 
Matted  and  massed  together,  hillocks  heaped 
On  what  were  chambers,  arch  crush' d,  column 
Strewn  in  fragments,  choked-up  vaults,  frescoes 
Steeped  in  subterranean  damps,  where  the  owl  peeped, 
Deeming  it  midnight. 


Among  the  debris  of  the  Grseco-Roman  civili- 
zation in  the  Orient  the  most  interesting  and  val- 
uable fare,  without  doubt,  the  ruined  Christian 
cities  of  Northern,  Central,  and  Southeastern  Syria: 
The  latter  group  is  situated  in  the  Hauran,  the 
ancient  Itursea,  on  the  border  of  the  Arabian 
desert;  the  second  group  within  the  triangle  formed 
by  the  towns  of  Hamah,  Aleppo,  and  Antake,  in 
the  north,  corresponding  to  the  ancient  Apamsea, 
Bercea,  and  Antioch.  Within  these  limits,  the 
local  tradition  says,  are  the  ruins  of  three  hundred 
and  sixty-five  Christian  cities.  There  are  at  least 
one  hundred  sites  clearly  recognizable  by  the 
modern  archaeologist.  They  are  no  ordinary  ruins, 
but  cities  almost  intact,  with  their  dwellings, 
churches,  tombs;  their  kitchens,  wine-  and  oil- 
presses;  their  regular  alignment  of  streets;  their 
gardens  and  opulent  villas.  Everything  is  as  the 
day  they  were  deserted,  excepting  such  displace- 
ments as  have  been  caused  by  earthquakes  and 
the  elements.    In  many  places  one  needs  only  to 


272  A  CHRISTIAN  POMPEII, 

restore  the  woodwork  and  the  interior  decorations, 
replace  the  fallen  stones  in  their  courses  and  clear 
away  the  drifted  earth  and  the  shrubbery  to  see 
again  the  every-day  life  of  the  Christian  Sjrrians 
from  the  fourth  to  the  sixth  centuries,  for  this  is 
the  period  to  which,  with  an  absolute  certainty, 
all  this  wealth  of  architecture  belongs. 

On  many  of  the  buildings  there  are  dates  in- 
scribed over  the  doors  or  windows,  in  Greek  letters, 
and  according  to  the  Syrian  era  of  the  Seleucides, 
easily  reducible  to  our  Christian  era.  The  earliest 
date  is  a.d.  331,  and  the  latest  a.d.  565.  On  all 
sides  the  eye  rests  upon  Christian  symbols,  the 
cross,  the  monogram  of  Christ,  the  Alpha  and 
Omega.  Pious  quotations  from  the  Psalms  are 
carved  over  the  lintels  of  the  doors  and  on  the 
walls  of  the  elegant  sepulchres.  Many  churches, 
if  roofed  and  floored,  might  be  used  at  once,  the 
pillars  and  arches,  the  apse,  the  vestries,  the  altar 
foimdations,  are  so  perfect.  Elsewhere  through- 
out the  ancient  world  the  chief  monuments  of  the 
private  life  of  the  ancients  have  disappeared,  and 
we  acquire  an  insight  into  it  only  through  their 
literature  and  the  remnants  of  artistic  decoration. 
Here  we  have  the  very  dwellings  of  the  ancients 
and  can  study  certain  phases  of  their  private  life 
in  its  minutest  details  and  in  several  of  its  most 


A   CHRISTIAN  POMPEII.  273 

important  relations.  These  monuments  are  to  the 
student  of  ancient  Christian  manners  and  behef 
what  Pompeii  is  to  the  student  of  the  classic  world 
of  Greece  and  Rome. 

''Walking  through  these  deserted  streets,  aban- 
doned courts,  and  lonely  porticoes/'  says  M.  De 
Vogue,  ''where  the  vine  embraces  every  mutilated 
column,  the  soul  is  oppressed  with  thoughts  sim- 
ilar to  those  that  Pompeii  suggests.  It  is  true 
that  the  climate  of  Syria  has  not  protected  these 
treasures  as  tenderly  as  the  ashes  of  Vesuvius 
those  of  Pompeii,  yet  we  are  more  profoundly 
impressed  by  their  novelty,  since  the  civilization 
spread  out  before  us  is  much  less  known  than  that 
of  the  Augustan  age. 

"These  hundred  cities  and  villages  scattered 
over  as  many  square  miles  of  territory,  form  an 
ensemble  from  which  it  is  impossible  to  separate 
any  part;  it  is  all  so  intimately  correlated,  and 
reveals  in  every  detail  the  same  style,  the  same 
obscure  Christian  epoch  from  the  fourth  to  the 
seventh  century.  As  though  by  magic  we  are 
again  in  those  remote  ages  and  Hve  their  life;  not 
the  humble,  timid,  dolorous  life  of  the  catacombs, 
but  an  easy,  opulent,  artistic  life,  such  as  is  led  in 
great  marble  houses,  splendidly  furnished,  pro- 
vided with  galleries  and  covered  porticoes,  gardens, 


274  A   CHRISTIAN  POMPEII. 

vineyards,  wine-presses,  and  all  the  appurtenances 
of  comfort.  There  are  large  subterraneous  kitchens 
and  stables,  elegant  baths  and  broad  squares  sur- 
rounded by  colonnades.  Over  the  greater  part  of 
the  gateways  are  seen  crosses  and  the  monogram 
of  Christ,  while  Christian  inscriptions  are  to  be 
read  on  all  sides.  Unlike  the  vain  pagan  inscrip- 
tions, they  seldom  mention  proper  names — only 
pious  sentences,  scriptural  phrases,  symbols,  and 
dates  are  inscribed  on  the  stone.  The  very  selec- 
tion of  texts  betrays  a  period  quite  subsequent 
to  the  victory  of  the  Church.  There  is  a  tone 
of  victory  resonant  in  every  line  from  the  verse 
of  the  psalmist,  cut  in  great  red  letters  on  the 
lintel  among  splendid  sculptures,  to  the  humble 
graffito  of  the  obscure  Christian  painter  who  tries 
his  brush  on  the  wall  of  a  sepulchre,  and  in  his 
unconscious  enthusiasm  traces  in  Greek  the  words 
of  the  Labarum:  By  this  sign  shalt  thou  conquer." 

It  was  meet  and  natural  that  the  first  artistic 
efflorescence  of  Christianity  should  take  place  on 
the  soil  of  Syria.  It  was  at  Antioch,  in  the  im- 
mediate neighborhood  of  these  monuments,  that 
the  name  of  Christians  was  first  applied  as  a  term 
of  opprobrium  to  the  followers  of  Jesus.  It  was 
at  Damascus  that  their  great   Apostle   Paul   was 


A  CHRISTIAN  POMPEII.  275 

converted  and  began  his  wondrous  career.  It 
was  along  the  Syrian  coast,  among  the  numerous 
Jewries,  that  the  faith  was  first  preached  outside 
Judsea.  The  ancient  Clementine  Homilies  and 
Recognitions,  an  extremely  venerable  Christian 
romance,  have  their  scene  on  the  Syrian  coast. 
Several  of  the  most  important  documents  of  early 
Christian  hterature  were  written  here  —  Syriac 
translations  of  the  Scripture,  Greek  apocryphal 
legislation  of  the  apostles,  apocryphal  gospels, 
ancient  and  popular  hymns,  catechisms,  gospel 
harmonies,  and  the  like.  Later  a  splendid  school  of 
Christian  literature  sprang  up,  represented  by  such 
men  as  St.  James  of  Nisibis,  St.  Ephrem,  James 
of  Sarug,  the  author  of  the  Edessene  Chronicle, 
and  others  whose  works  are  eagerly  studied  to- 
day. It  was  on  this  soil  that  the  best  Chris- 
tian schools  were  opened  and  flourished  longest — 
Caesarea,  Edessa,  Nisibis.  The  first  Christian  Em- 
peror, Philip  the  Arab,  came  from  the  Syrian  city 
of  Bostra,  in  the  Hauran.  The  Syrian  Arche- 
laus  first  refuted  in  person  the  author  of  Mani- 
chseism.  Monasticism  flourished  here  as  early  as 
in  Egypt,  and  the  Syrian  Church  was  the  first  to 
carry  the  faith  to  Persia,  India,  among  the  wan- 
dering Saracen  tribes  at  the  end  of  the  fourth  cen- 
tury, and  in  the  seventh  as  far  as  China.    The  last 


276  A   CHRISTIAN  POMPEII. 

refuge  of  the  immoral  heathen  cults  was  in  the 
Syrian  sanctuaries,  and  the  last  Christian  blood 
spilled  by  the  heathen  mobs  was  shed  in  Syria. 
The  first  Christian  kingdom  was  the  little  Syrian 
state  of  the  Abgars  of  Edessa  in  the  second  century. 

Most  of  these  Christian  monuments  are  grouped 
topographically  on  the  plateau  of  the  Hauran,  in 
the  southeastern  part  of  Syria,  and  in  the  centre, 
within  the  triangle  formed  by  the  towns  of  Hamah, 
Aleppo,  and  Antake.  For  the  present  we  confine 
ourselves  to  the  latter  group,  in  many  respects 
the  more  instructive  and  touching.  Hamah  is  the 
ancient  Apamsea  of  Syria,  one  of  the  several  towns 
which  bore  that  name. 

The  Macedonian  Seleucides  lavished  untold 
sums  on  its  construction.  Even  to-day  long  rows 
of  marble  pillars  mark  the  lines  of  the  streets  and 
the  rich  materials  of  its  construction  lie  around 
in  immense  heaps  of  cornices  and  friezes,  plinths 
and  fluted  shafts.  There  are  few  places  where 
the  elegant  Hellenic  culture  has  left  more  splendid 
traces  of  its  passage.  From  Hamah  the  traveller 
reaches  the  Arab  village  of  El-Barah,  where  many 
of  the  most  important  of  the  ancient  Christian 
ruins  are  to  be  seen. 

El-Barah    itself    and    the    neighboring    villages 


A  CHRISTIAN  POMPEII.  277 

of  Bechoulla,  Moudjeleia,  Khirbet-Hass,  Dana,  and 
others  offer  to  the  curious  investigator  a  sight  not 
easily  forgotten.  On  all  sides  of  the  plateau  and 
on  the  crests  of  all  the  neighboring  hills  arise  the 
imposing  ruins  of  churches,  houses,  baths,  and 
tombs,  relics  of  the  refined  civilization  of  Chris- 
tian Syria  from  thirteen  to  fifteen  centuries  ago. 
Outside  of  Pompeii  we  meet  nowhere  such  abun- 
dant remains  of  the  domestic  architecture  of  the 
ancients.  In  many  cases  the  houses  only  need 
the  replacement  of  the  slanting  roof  and  the 
floors  to  be  again  habitable.  They  are  constructed 
without  mortar,  cement,  or  clamps,  out  of  great 
blocks  of  white  limestone,  which  is  found  in  deep 
strata  throughout  this  region  and  hardens  by  ex- 
posure. Usually  they  are  two  stories  in  height. 
In  the  Orient  the  limits  of  domestic  and  public  life 
are  much  more  sharply  defined  than  in  the  West; 
hence  we  find  the  outer  walls  of  these  dwellings 
without  windows  or  openings,  save  the  occasional 
traces  of  balconies,  which  perhaps  supported  a 
wooden  kiosk,  as  is  the  custom  in  the  East.  The 
rigid  street  line  is  broken  only  by  a  covered  vesti- 
bule, on  one  side  of  which  is  a  little  opening  for 
the  inspection  of  visitors  and  on  the  other  a  niche 
destined  to  hold  a  lamp. 
Passing  through  the  vestibule  we  enter  a  large 


278  A   CHRISTIAN  POMPEII, 

court;  on  the  opposite  side  of  which,  facing  the 
south,  rises  the  elegant  facade  of  the  house,  with 
its  two  rows  of  superimposed  columns,  united  by 
low  parapets  of  stone.  These  porticoes  are  richly 
sculptured,  and  there  is  an  air  of  classic  grace  and 
solidity  about  the  whole  edifice.  The  pent  roof 
is  wanting,  and  the  floors,  but  the  traces  of  the 
supports  of  the  beams  are  yet  visible,  and  some- 
times the  stone  floors  are  yet  intact,  resting  on 
parallel  lines  of  arcades.  Even  the  outhouses 
and  the  perishable  appurtenances  of  the  great  villa 
are  yet  in  existence,  and  their  form  and  destina- 
tion easily  distinguishable. 

The  kitchens,  the  stables,  the  wine-  and  olive- 
presses,  the  courtyards  for  the  laborers  and  ser- 
vants, the  shape  and  limits  of  the  family  gardens, 
are  there,  often  almost  complete,  in  some  cases 
wanting  only  the  portions  that  time  has  destroyed. 
The  hand  of  man  has  spared  these  edifices.  It 
is  the  border  region  of  the  Bedouin  and  the  peas- 
ant, and  the  tents  of  the  former  were  ever  in  past 
centuries  more  nimierous  than  the  poor  huts  of 
the  latter.  At  Moudjeleia,  near  El-Barah,  is  a 
curious  kitchen  cut  out  of  the  solid  rock,  with  a 
staircase  of  the  same  art,  a  great  stone  fireplace, 
and  niches,  rings,  and  other  culinary  furniture  cut 
out  of  the  same   material.     In   the   same   village 


A  CHRISTIAN  POMPEII,  279 

is  a  stable   built  in    similar  fashion,    with    stone 
mangers. 

At  El-Barah  the  traveller  may  see  one  of  the 
numerous    wine-presses    of    the    country,    a    huge 
basalt  vat,  with  stone  supports  for  the  simple  but 
perfect    machinery,    which    has    not    changed    in 
character  since  the  time  these  presses  were  built. 
When  we  read  over  the  door  the  Latin  inscrip- 
tion laudatory  of  the  gifts  of  Bacchus,  we  are  sud- 
denly reminded  of  the  awful  visitation  which  has 
fallen  upon  Syria  since  the  nuddle  of  the  seventh 
century  of  our  era.    The  streets  of  El-Barah  were 
narrow    and    cheerless.    They    ran    between    rows 
of    windowless    walls,    and    their   large    polygonal 
blocks  were  crossed  at  intervals  by  little  channels 
to  prevent  the  horses  from  shpping.    We  can  trace 
yet  the  ruts  of  the  chariot  wheels  on  these  ancient 
pavements,  and   aroimd   the   town  are  yet  to  be 
seen  long  lines  of  rough-hewn  pillars,  which  mark 
the  once  jealously  kept  boundaries  of  these  ele- 
gant villas. 

In  fact  all  these  ruins  seem  to  belong  to  villa- 
communities  or  pleasure-demesnes.  Nowhere  are 
there  any  traces  of  theatre,  stadia,  or  hippodromes, 
so  essential  to  the  municipal  life  of  the  Grseco- 
Homan.    No   inscriptions   put   up   by   the   senate 


280  A   CHRISTIAN  POMPEII. 

and  people  or  by  the  decurions  have  been  found, 
no  tablets  expressing  the  gratitude  of  the  munici- 
pality for  the  erection  of  baths  or  theatres,  the 
reparation  of  aqueducts,  roads,  bridges,  and  the 
like. 

This  group  of  the  Christian  ruins  of  Syria  seems 
made  up  of  the  sumptuous  villegiature  of  the  neigh- 
boring Antioch.  The  ruins  which  dot  the  hills 
between  the  humid  plain  on  which  the  Queen  of 
the  Orient  was  partly  built  and  the  vast  desert 
of  slopes  in  the  direction  of  the  Euphrates  are  those 
of  the  summer  houses  of  the  rich  Christians  of 
Antioch.  Even  to-day  in  the  changeless  Orient 
the  Beyrouth  merchant  must  have  his  summer 
house  on  the  slopes  of  Libanus.  In  those  days 
Antioch  had  a  population  of  about  one  million, 
one-tenth  of  which  was  Christian  at  the  opening 
of  the  fourth  century.  She  was  the  mistress  of 
the  Orient,  and  her  streets  and  squares  swarmed 
with  a  conglomerate  multitude  gathered  from 
Britain  to  the  boundaries  of  India  and  China. 

In  the  whole  neighborhood  there  were  no  more 
charming  or  restful  sites  than  the  crests  of  the 
Eastern  hills,  where  there  was  an  abundance  of 
stone  and  wood,  a  fertile  soil  and  a  picturesque 
combination  of  mountain,  slope,  and  valley.  The 
richest  example   of  those   suburban   ruins   is   that 


A   CHRISTIAN  POMPEII  281 

of  Deir-Lobat  (Convent  of  Elizabeth),  which  may 
once  have  been  a  Christian  convent,  but  was  orig- 
inally a  private  villa.    It  differs  from  the  other 
ruins   of  domestic  architecture  about  El-Barah  in 
internal  arrangement.    All  the  rooms  open  on  a 
long  central  hall,   which  bears  yet  the  traces  of 
its  ancient  stucco   ornamentation.    In  the   cellars 
cut  in  the  solid  rocks  are  seen  yet  the  great  stone 
jars    for    the    preservation    of    wine    or    oil.    At- 
tached to  the  imposing  ruins  are  large  gardens, 
in  which  are  the  family  sepulchres,  some  of  them 
hewn  out  of  the  solid  rock.    There  is  one  of  es- 
pecial grace,   a  little,   open  temple  supported  by 
twelve  colonnettes;  covering  the  sarcophagi  of  two 
members  of  the  family.    It  is  or  was  (for  it  has 
fallen  lately)  built  in  one  corner  of  the  spacious 
garden,  and  the  Roman  archaeologists  have  taken 
advantage  of  this  discovery  to  illustrate  the  man- 
ner in  which  the  rich  families  of  Rome  began  the 
formation    of   the  Roman  cemeteries    about  their 
own  family  burial-places. 

Over  two  of  the  doorways  in  the  central  hall 
of  this  villa  the  monogram  of  Christ,  i.e.,  the  two 
first  letters  of  His  name  in  Greek  (X  P),  is  sculp- 
tured. This  shows  the  Christian  nature  of  the 
edifice.    It  is  by  similar  symbols  and  by  the  nu- 


282  A   CHRISTIAN  POMPEII. 

merous  inscriptions  on  the  doors  and  windows 
of  the  houses,  as  well  as  by  the  ruins  of  the 
churches,  that  we  are  able  to  detect  the  Chris- 
tian origin  of  this  interesting  phase  of  civilization. 
Over  the  doorways  of  most  of  the  villas  and 
houses,  or  on  the  window  cornices,  the  monogram 
of  Christ  is  found  surrounded  by  elegant  tracery, 
sometimes  between  the  Greek  Alpha  and  Omega, 
and  once  between  two  peacocks,  the  sjnnbols 
of  resurrection  and  immortahty.  Pious  sentences 
in  Greek,  often  verses  of  the  Psalms,  are  inscribed 
on  the  lintels  of  the  doorways  or  over  the  windows, 
such  as  one  may  yet  read  over  the  doorways  in 
the  ancient  Catholic  cities  of  Germany  and  Italy. 
Thus,  over  a  door  at  El-Barah,  '' Christ  is  forever 
triumphant/'  Over  another  at  Roueiha,  "There 
is  but  one  God;  Christ  is  God."  Over  the  outside 
door  of  a  house  at  Dellouza,  ''Lord,  be  gracious 
to  this  house  and  to  all  who  dwell  in  it ";  and  over 
the  inside  door,  ''If  God  be  with  us,  who  is  against 
us?    Glory  be  Thine  forever." 

At  Khirbet-Hass,  over  a  doorway,  is  the  sig- 
nificant formula,  "Ichthys  (the  symbolical  fish, 
the  Son  of  God,  our  Saviour,  the  Blessed  Eucha- 
rist). Alleluia."  These  are  the  thoughts  of  the  first 
generation,  which  had  come  through  the  persecu- 
tion of  Diocletian  and  shared  in  the  triumph  of 


A  CHRISTIAN  POMPEII.  283 

Constantine  and  the  long-thirsted-for  peace  of 
the  Church  (312  a.d.).  We  hear  again  from 
these  dumb  stones  the  heart-stirring  tones  of 
Eusebius  in  the  famous  chapters  on  the  battle  of 
the  Milvian  Bridge.  In  fact,  the  oldest  of  the 
Christian  portal  inscriptions  (at  Refadi)  is  dated 
A.D.  331,  within  twenty  years  of  the  defeat  of 
Maxentius,  and  reads:  ^^Thalaris  built  this  house. 
Christ,  be  gracious!  There  is  only  one  God." 
The  architecture  of  these  houses  is  so  homoge- 
neous that  the  general  description  of  one  suffices 
for  all,  and  the  calculation  of  the  date  to  which 
any  one  belongs  would  suffice  to  locate  the  whole 
complex  within  its  proper  limits;  yet  in  this  cen- 
tral group  there  are  more  than  thirty  buildings 
bearing  the  date  of  their  erection  sculptured  on 
the  fagade.  There  is  no  date  earlier  than  a.d. 
331  and  none  later  than  a.d.  565.  Within  these 
limits  were  constructed  all  the  monuments  whose 
vast  ruins  yet  cumber  the  ground. 

Sometimes  the  name  of  the  architect  is  in- 
cised together  with  the  date.  Thus  we  find  the 
architect  Damas  mentioned  on  a  building  dated 
Jan.  29,  a.d.  378;  Domnus,  with  the  date  of  Aug. 
1,  A.D.  431,  and  Airamis,  Aug.  13,  a.d.  510.  Else- 
where is  the  quaint  inscription,  "The  power  of 
God  and  Christ  built  this  house.     The  Lord  was 


284  A   CHRISTIAN  POMPEII. 

the  architect/^  It  is  remarkable  that  the  door- 
ways have  withstood  the  ravages  of  time  better 
than  the  other  parts  of  the  buildings.  In  the  sec- 
tion of  the  ruins  about  El-Barah  there  are  some 
fifty  standing  in  perfect  order,  owing  to  their  mas- 
sive construction.  Over  one  at  Deir-Seta  is  the 
inscription,  "  There  is  one  God  who  succours  all, 
A.D.  412,^'  and  in  the  village  built  at  the  foot  of 
the  Convent  of  St.  Simeon  Stylites  we  read  over 
a  great  portal:  '^Simeonf.  God  bless  our  going 
in  and  coming  out.''  This  invocation  of  a  saint 
is  not  alone.  Over  some  doorways,  especially 
in  the  churches,  the  initials  of  the  names  of  Christ, 
Michael,  and  Gabriel  are  sculptured,  and  the  same 
are  found  occasionally  over  the  vestibules  of 
tombs  and  in  the  upper  chambers  of  the  church 
towers. 

It  would  seem  as  if  there  was  a  design  to  assert 
the  cultus  of  the  angels  in  an  orthodox  manner. 
In  the  fourth  century  the  Council  of  Laodicea 
had  to  interfere  with  an  heretical  form  of  this 
cultus. 

It  need  not  surprise  us  to  find  here  the  ruins 
of  public  baths.  They  were  an  indispensable  neces- 
sity among  the  ancient  Grseco-Roman  peoples. 
Though  the  early  Christians  deprecated  the  abuses 
of    the    baths,    they    never    forbade    them.     The 


A   CHRISTIAN  POMPEII.  285 

Apostolic  Constitutions,  a  work  compiled  in  this 
period  and  for  the  use  of  the  episcopate  of  Syria 
and  Asia  Minor,  regulates  in  a  Christian  manner 
the  frequentation  of  the  baths.  At  El-Barah  they 
were  all  the  more  necessary  since  there  were  neither 
rivers  nor  springs  in  the  vicinity,  and  the  popula- 
tion had  to  depend  largely  on  the  use  of  cisterns. 
Among  the  buildings  still  partly  perfect  is  an 
ancient  bath. 

The  visitor  may  yet  make  out  the  vestibule, 
the  wicket  where  the  small  bathing  fee  was  paid, 
the  common  hall,  the  sweating-baths,  and  the  tepid- 
room.  The  hot-water  baths,  the  great  cistern  and 
the  reservoir  near  the  furnaces,  the  stone  conduits 
for  the  water  after  it  had  passed  over  heated  peb- 
bles, are  still  visible.  The  Arabs  give  the  name  of 
cafe  to  a  neighboring  building  with  an  upper  and 
a  lower  portico.  It  may  well  be,  for  the  luxury 
of  the  ancient  Roman  baths  reached  a  degree 
scarcely  credible  in  our  modern  world. 


A  special  interest  attaches  to  the  numerous 
ruins  of  tombs  and  sepulchres  which  meet  one  at 
every  step  on  these  silent,  deserted  hills.  Some- 
times they  are  subterranean,  and  everything  about 
them,  even  the  little  porticoes,  is  cut  out  of  the 


286  A   CHRISTIAN  POMPEII. 

solid  rock.  The  doors  and  hinges  of  such  sepul- 
chres are  of  black  basalt,  the  white  limestone 
wearing  away  too  easily.  There  are  several  speci- 
mens of  diminutive  temples,  graceful  cediculce, 
with  columns  and  baldacchinos.  At  Roueiha  the 
eye  is  especially  pleased  with  two  classic  tombs 
whose  severe  and  simple  lines  stand  out  with 
sharp  distinctness  against  the  cloudless  blue  of  the 
sky  and  the  stretches  of  green  pasturage.  In  many 
tombs  the  square  mortuary  chamber  is  termi- 
nated by  a  pyramid,  which  would  seem  to  have 
been  illuminated  on  certain  occasions. 

There  are  also  domic  tombs,  with  little  cupo- 
las resting  upon  the  walls  and  certain  springing 
projections,  in  which  the  architect  traces  the 
earliest  Christian  use  of  the  pendentives  which 
made  St.  Sophia  possible.  The  domic  tombs 
of  the  Arabs  in  the  Orient  seem  to  have  been 
copied  from  these  models.  Scattered  over  the 
same  area  are  many  single  sepulchres,  stone  sar- 
cophagi of  Egyptian  style,  made  of  single  blocks 
of  stone,  with  sloping  covers  decorated  with  up- 
right ornaments  at  the  corners  and  a  cross  in  the 
centre.  From  the  earliest  ages  the  Christians 
paid  special  care  to  the  resting-places  of  their 
dead.  The  bodies  of  the  departed  were  temples 
of  the  Holy  Ghost,  vehicles  of  immortal  souls  and 


A  CHRISTIAN  POMPEII,  287 

destined  to  rise  again.  The  liens  of  commun- 
ion were  not  broken  by  death,  but  strengthened 
by  the  mutual  offices  of  prayer  and  inter- 
cession. 

The  Christian  unity,  welded  by  the  fires  of  per- 
secution and  general  outlawry,  grew  still  more 
compact  through  this  incessant  intercourse  with 
the  spiritual  world,  where  the  hunted  Christian 
saw  the  enthroned  Christ,  the  prophets,  angels, 
apostles,  and  saints,  the  absence  of  all  evil  and 
wrong,  the  final  triumph  of  the  suffering  brethren 
and  saints.  It  was  in  this  spirit  that  the  Roman 
faithful  loved  to  haunt  the  catacombs,  to  adorn 
the  resting-places  of  the  dead,  and  later  to  bury 
the  martyrs  beneath  the  altars  of  the  Christian 
sacrifice.  The  rich  Antiochene  Christians  of  the 
fourth  and  fifth  centuries  did  not  differ  from  their 
Roman  brethren.  The  tombs  are  more  elegant 
and  solid,  as  becomes  people  of  wealth,  merchant 
princes,  officers  of  the  State.  But  there  are  no 
laudatory  inscriptions,  no  cynical  scoffings  at  life 
and  fate,  no  helpless  moanings,  such  as  the  Greek 
and  Roman  funereal  epigraphy  offers  us  in  abun- 
dance. The  cross  or  the  monogram  of  Christ  is 
usually  sculptured  on  the  doors  or  the  walls  of  the 
sepulchre.  Pious  inscriptions  from  the  Psalms  are 
met  with  frequently.    Thus,   at  Moudjeleia,  *'Be- 


288  A  CHRISTIAN  POMPEII. 

cause  Thou,  0  Lord,  art  my  hope ;  Thou  hast  made 
the  most  High  my  refuge.  There  shall  no  evil 
come  to  thee,  nor  shall  the  scourge  come  near  thy 
dwelling"  (Ps.  xc.  9-10).  At  Hass,  ^'Blessed  be 
he  that  cometh  in  the  name  of  the  Lord.  The 
Lord  is  God,  and  He  hath  shone  upon  us''  (Ps. 
cxvii.  26,  27).  On  the  cornice  of  one  of  the  cupola 
tombs  at  Roueiha  we  meet  the  following  naive 
epitaph:  '^Bizzos,  son  of  Pardos.  I  have  lived 
well,  I  have  arrived  well,  I  repose  well.  Pray  for 
me.''  It  recalls  the  Live  in  Christ,  live  in  the  Lord, 
of  the  Roman  catacombs.  The  tombs  of  Diog- 
enes, at  Hass,  and  Eusebius,  the  Christian,  not 
far  from  Antioch,  are  worthy  of  special  mention. 
The  epitaph  on  the  latter  tomb  reads:  '^fTo  Eu- 
sebiusf  the  Christian.  Glory  be  to  the  Father, 
the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost.  August  27,  a.d. 
369."  This  use  of  the  Christian  name  near  the 
city  where  it  first  took  its  origin  is  remarkable. 
The  doxology  sounds  like  a  defiance  to  the  tri- 
umphant Arians,  the  contemporary,  Valens,  the 
Emperor,  and  Euzoius,  the  Bishop  of  Antioch 
and  once  the  intimate  friend  of  Arius  himself.  We 
seem  to  hear  the  echoes  of  that  awful  battle  for 
the  divinity  of  Christ,  which  was  nowhere  fiercer 
than  in  Syria,  the  land  of  its  true  origin,  and  es- 
pecially at  Antioch,  the  stronghold  of  the  earliest 


A   CHRISTIAN  POMPEII.  289 

critical  and  rationalizing  school  in  the  Catholic 
Church. 

The  clearest  evidence  of  the  character  of  these 
villa-conimunities  is  found  in  the  number  of  Chris- 
tian churches  yet  lifting  their  venerable  walls, 
which  could  be  easily  repaired  and  made  to  bear 
wooden  roofs,  in  accordance  with  the  original  plans. 
The  finest  monuments  in  these  ruined  cities  and 
villages  are  always  the  churches.  They  possess  the 
best  sites,  and  the  grounds  allotted  to  them  were 
ample,  as  can  be  seen  from  the  numerous  ecclesias- 
tical buildings  frequently  gathered  about  the  house 
of  God. 

Long  before  the  advent  of  Constantine  the 
Christians  had  public  edifices  of  their  own.  Dio- 
cletian destroyed  their  splendid  church  in  the 
highest  part  of  Nicomedia.  There  were  forty 
churches  at  Rome  in  the  first  quarter  of  the  fourth 
century,  and  such  churches  as  St.  Csecilia,  St. 
Mary  across  the  Tiber,  St.  Praxedes,  and  St.  Pu- 
dentiana  are  very  much  older,  to  say  the  least. 
With  the  conversion  of  Constantine  came  a  com- 
plete renovation  of  the  old  ecclesiastical  edifices. 
New  ones  were  built;  the  temples  and  temple 
lands  fell  frequently  to  the  Church;  the  piety  and 
zeal  of  the  emperors,  bishops,  and  faithful  con- 
tributed  largely.    Before    the    end    of   the    fourth 


290  A  CHRISTIAN  POMPEII. 

century  the  Christians  could  boast  that  they  had 
an  architecture  of  their  own.  While  following 
the  noble  traditions  of  the  old  classic  art,  they 
introduced  of  a  necessity  many  modifications  and 
improvements,  though  they  kept  the  general  forms 
of  the  basilica,  or  public  court-house,  and  the  round 
or  octagon  temple. 

The  Christian  church  differed  substantially  from 
the  pagan  temple.  The  latter  was  the  myste- 
rious abode  of  the  idol,  entered  only  by  the  mem- 
bers of  his  priesthood,  obscurely  lighted,  removed 
usually  from  the  public  thoroughfares — the  share 
of  the  people  being  only  that  of  passive  onlookers. 
But  the  Christian  church  was  a  meeting-place 
of  Christ's  mystic  body.  Its  members  were  a 
spiritual  priesthood'  by  participation,  though  the 
power  of  offering  the  commemorative  sacrifice, 
and  a  certain  defined  authority,  were  restricted 
to  a  chosen  number.  The  Christians,  unlike  the 
pagans,  had  a  doctrine  and  a  discipline  to  learn 
and  observe.  They  were  one  family  knit  by  the 
bond  of  love,  had  a  common  spiritual  banquet, 
and  the  obligation  to  hear  the  word  of  their 
founder  preached.  Thus  from  the  beginning  the 
Christian  architecture  had  within  it  the  germs 
of  a  fruitful  evolution,  even  though  it  borrowed 
the  shell  of  the  classic  basilica  or  temple. 


A   CHRISTIAN  POMPEII.  291 

The  Christians  at  once  enlarged  the  bema, 
made  it  the  apse  for  the  altar  and  the  clergy. 
They  added  the  vestibule  and  the  front  court  for 
the  faithful  in  various  states  of  probation,  the 
sacristy  and  treasury  for  the  preparations  for  the 
sacred  rites  and  to  receive  the  offerings  of  the  faith- 
ful. They  built  side  naves  for  room  and  opened 
more  windows  in  the  clere-story  for  light.  They 
introduced  large  fountains  in  the  open  court  for 
the  purposes  of  ritual  ablution.  We  have  a  good 
description  of  the  early  Christian  basilica  of  this 
period  in  the  Church  History  of  Eusebius,  apropos 
of  the  dedication  (a.d.  314)  of  the  cathedral  of 
Tyre.  He  mentions  the  outer  wall  surrounding 
a  court,  just  as  one  sees  before  the  Roman  basilica 
of  St.  Cecilia,  the  central  fountain  for  the  ablu- 
tions which  has  since  dwindled  down  to  the  holy- 
water  font  at  the  church  door,  the  vestibules,  the 
naves,  the  windows  of  the  clere-story,  with  their 
wooden  trellis-work,  the  cedar  roof,  the  altar,  and 
the  railing  of  precious  wood,  with  the  elegant  mo- 
saic pavements. 

The  other  Christian  churches  of  Sjria  were  no 
doubt  similar  to  that  of  Tyre.  In  fact,  at  El- 
Barah  and  in  the  neighboring  ruins  one  can  yet 
trace  many  of  the  ancient  details  of  the  Christian 
churches.    The   monolith    columns,   often    grouped 


292  A   CHRISTIAN  POMPEII. 

and  forming  great  pillars  to  support  the  roof,  are 
yet  standing  in  some  places.  There  are  churches 
which  yet  possess  clere-story  and  fagade  in  spite 
of  earthquake  and  storm.  The  jutting  corbels  to 
support  the  rafters  are  still  in  place.  The  ele- 
gant apse,  with  its  sculptured  arch,  fascinates 
the  beholder.  Even  the  diaconicum  or  sacristy 
and  the  gazophylacium  or  treasury  have  escaped 
destruction,  the  former  opening  on  the  choir  and 
the  latter  on  one  of  the  lateral  naves.  It  was  to 
this  treasury  or  bureau  that  the  people  brought 
their  gifts,  which  were  entered  on  the  church  books 
and  read  out  by  the  deacon  from  the  altar — a  cus- 
tom as  old  as  the  time  of  St.  Cyprian,  and  by  the 
Church  of  Africa  borrowed  perhaps  from  the 
mother  Church  of  Rome. 

To  complete  the  early  Christian  Church  in 
some  of  the  specimens  yet  extant  we  would  only 
have  to  add  the  cubic  mass  of  the  altar,  the  rail- 
ing of  sculptured  wood,  with  the  uprights  and 
curtains  to  be  drawn  at  the  consecration,  and  a 
lattice-work  through  the  centre  of  the  main  nave 
to  separate  the  men  from  the  women.  It  is  not 
easy  to  judge  whether  the  roof  was  finished  in 
open  woodwork  or  in  coffered  compartments. 
Certainly  the  roof  was  often  painted  and  gilded, 
so  much  so  as  to  be  a  distraction  to  the  auditory 


A   CHRISTIAN  POMPEII.  293 

of  even  such  preachers  as  St.  John  Chrysostom. 
The  fagade  of  these  churches  is  usually  an  orna- 
mented reproduction  of  a  transverse  cut  of  the 
nave  or  naves,  following  faithfully  the  main  out- 
lines of  the  latter.  The  doors  are  protected  by 
porches  with  columns,  and  the  monogram  of 
Christ  or  some  pious  symbol  is  sculptured  above 
the  hntel.  We  do  not  meet  with  many  inscrip- 
tions in  this  group  of  ecclesiastical  ruins,  and  none 
of  the  churches  are  dated,  though  their  approx- 
imate age  may  easily  be  gathered  from  the  study 
of  their  details.  These  buildings  are  quite  large, 
from  100  to  200  feet  in  length,  about  the  size  of 
an  ordinary  parish  church.  Yet  one  was  scarcely 
sufficient  for  each  community.  The  early  Greek 
Church  was  wont  to  have  but  a  single  altar  and 
to  allow  but  one  Mass  on  feast  days.  Hence  we 
find  three  churches  at  El-Barah,  two  at  the  neigh- 
boring Moudjeleia,  and  two  or  three  close  by  at 
Roueiha.  This  grouping  of  small  churches  is 
nothing  new  in  Christian  architecture — it  has 
been  noticed  in  Armenia  and  Russia;  we  are  all 
well  acquainted  with  the  "Seven  Churches"  of 
Ireland.  This  is  another  indication  of  the  strong 
influence  that  the  Orient  exercised  on  the  early 
Irish,  as  well  in  their  art  as  in  their  ecclesiasti- 
cism. 


294  A   CHRISTIAN  POMPEII, 

Naturally  the  churches  were  numerous  among 
a  population  nearly  all  Christian;  the  local  tradi- 
tions say  that  there  were  once  three  himdred 
within  the  triangle  formed  by  Hamah,  Aleppo, 
and  Antake.  We  can  well  believe  this,  for  we 
know  from  Theodoret,  a  famous  Syrian  bishop 
and  scholar  of  the  fifth  century,  that  his  diocese 
of  Cyrrhus,  only  forty  miles  square,  contained 
eight  hundred  churches.  The  ornamentation  of 
this  Syro-Christian  architecture  breathes  through- 
out a  spirit  at  once  classic  and  Christian.  The 
cornices,  friezes,  and  capitals  are  trimmed  with 
the  acanthus  leaf.  The  egg-ornament  and  den- 
tilated  foliage  are  frequently  met  with.  Simple 
but  meaningful  symbols  of  Christian  teaching 
are  everywhere  reproduced,  such  as  the  mono- 
gram of  Christ  and  the  cross.  There  are  still 
others  which  transport  us  to  the  catacombs,  and 
show  that  the  religious  art  cycle  of  Rome  was  com- 
mon to  the  Christian  communities  throughout 
the  Empire — ^thus  the  ivy-leaf  punctuation  on  the 
inscriptions,  the  Agnus  Dei  with  the  cross  stand- 
ing upon  his  haunches,  the  little  circular  loaves 
of  bread  with  the  sign  of  the  cross  indented  on 
them,  the  bunches  of  grapes  and  sheaves  of 
wheat  to  represent  the  Eucharist,  the  palms  of 
victory. 


A   CHRISTIAN  POMPEII.  295 

Elsewhere  we  see  the  Alpha  and  Omega  and 
plain  Greek  crosses.  On  a  tomb  are  seen  once- 
sculptured  lion  heads.  We  cannot  say  what  sculp- 
tures of  human  figures  there  were;  such  were 
most  likely  to  be  destroyed  by  the  Mohammedans. 
Over  one  of  the  side  doors  at  Kalb-Louzeh  are  see 
two  mutilated  himaan  busts  representing  the  arch- 
angels Michael  and  Gabriel,  whose  names  are  in- 
cised above.  The  church  seems  to  have  been  built 
in  the  sixth  century. 

Among  the  earliest  accessories  of  the  Christian 
church  were  certain  constructions  of  secondary 
importance,  such  as  towers,  baptisteries,  chapels, 
clergy-houses,  and  the  like.  The  early  Syro-Chris- 
tian  architecture  offers  us  many  well-preserved 
specimens  of  such  buildings.  The  earliest  ex- 
ample of  a  tower  attached  to  a  Christian  church 
is  found  at  Tafkha,  in  Northern  Syria,  where  the 
ruined  basilica  (a.d.  350-450)  has  a  three-story 
tower.  At  Kalb-Louzeh  and  Tourmanim,  there 
are  also  towers,  not  detached  from  the  church, 
as  is  usually  the  case  in  the  West  at  a  later  period, 
but  worked  into  the  general  plan  of  the  facade. 
At  Kliirbet-Hass  the  bases  of  lateral  towers  are 
seen  at  each  side  of  the  choir.  It  is  not  so  easy 
to  say  whence  the  idea  of  these  towers  came  to 
the  Syrian  builders.    Some  have  sought  it  in  the 


296  A   CHRISTIAN  POMPEII. 

influence  of  Indian  and  Assyrian  models,  others 
in  an  ancient  tradition  that  Christ  was  buried  in 
a  pyramidal  tomb,  such  as  yet  exist  in  Syria.  In 
the  neighborhood  of  Palmyra  tall,  square  towers 
with  several  stories  have  been  found  which  were 
used  as  family  sepulchres.  Perhaps,  after  all, 
these  towers  were  meant  only  to  enclose  the  stair- 
cases leading  to  the  open  gallery  above  the  main 
entrance.  It  is  not  impossible  that  they  were 
meant  for  bells— large  bells  of  molten  metal  ap- 
pear in  the  West  at  the  end  of  this  period— or  for 
trumpets;  at  least,  in  the  fourth  century  the  latter 
served  to  call  the  monks  to  prayer.  The  Syrian 
churches  had  baptisteries  attached  to  them;  a 
notable  hexagonal  specimen  thirty  feet  in  diam- 
eter is  still  in  part  erect  at  Deir-Seta. 

Many  of  the  basiUcas  were  provided  with  chapels, 
some  of  which  are  in  a  tolerable  state  of  preser- 
vation. Around  the  larger  churches  are  yet  the 
unroofed  buildings  for  the  use  of  the  clergy  and 
the  church  functionaries.  Some  of  these  edifices, 
as  at  El-Barah,  were  originally  erected  for  libraries 
and  schools,  which,  in  the  Orient  at  least,  have 
been  always  connected  with  the  churches.  The 
necessity  of  providing  capable  men  who  could 
preach  the  Christian  doctrine  and  administer  the 
church  affairs  forces  us  to  suppose  these  schools, 


A   CHRISTIAN  POMPEII,  297 

if  we  did  not  otherwise  know  of  their  existence. 
They  appear  first  at  Alexandria,  but  in  the  third 
and  fourth  centuries  it  is  Syria  which  offers  us 
the  best  and  largest  establishments  of  this  kind — 
Antioch,  Csesarea,  Jerusalem,  Edessa,  and  Nisibis. 
There  are  positive  traces  of  a  catechetical  school 
at  Rome  in  the  second  century,  and  from  the 
beginning  of  the  fourth  we  can  follow  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  Lateran  school  and  the  growth  of  its 
library,  long  the  resting-place  of  the  papal  archives. 
Among  the  canons  attributed  to  the  sixth  gen- 
eral council  of  Constantinople  (a.d.  680)  is  one 
to  the  effect  that  presbyters  in  country  towns  and 
villages  should  have  schools  to  teach  all  such  chil- 
dren as  were  sent  to  them,  for  which  they  should 
expect  no  reward  nor  take  anything,  except  the 
parents  of  the  children  thought  fit  to  make  a  vol- 
untary oblation.  That  this  was  only  an  ancient 
custom  is  clear  from  the  observation  of  Socrates 
on  the  education  of  Julian,  that  in  his  youth  the 
latter  frequented  the  church  "where  in  those  days 
the  school  was  kept." 

The  oldest  of  the  dated  churches  of  Syria  are 
to  be  found  in  the  southern  group,  in  the  Hauran. 
Here  the  ancient  church  of  St.  George,  at  Ezra, 
bears  the  date  of  a.d.  515.      The  cathedral  church 


298  A   CHRISTIAN  POMPEII. 

of  Bostra,  which  rises  among  the  ruins  of  a  city 
famous  in  the  annals  of  early  church  history,  seems 
to  have  been  built  at  the  same  time. 

It  would  be  useless  to  mention  more  than  a  few 
of  the  ruined  basilicas  of  this  central  region  of 
Syria,  they  differ  so  little  in  their  general  archi- 
tecture. Those  of  Hass,  Kalb-Louzeh,  and  Tour- 
manim  may  serve  as  examples.  Of  the  first  only 
one  wall  is  standing,  but  that  suffices  to  show  that 
the  church  was  unsurpassed  in  the  neighborhood 
for  elegance  and  solidity.  The  arched  window- 
caps  are  made  of  single  blocks  of  stone,  and  at 
the  end  of  the  ruined  wall  are  traces  which  show 
that  the  church  contained  a  private  loggia  over 
the  choir,  perhaps  for  some  distinguished  individ- 
uals. It  appears  to  belong  to  the  period  from 
A.D.  350-400,  and  is  thus  one  of  the  oldest  of  the 
region.  In  fact,  the  materials  of  a  pagan  temple 
have  been  utilized  in  its  construction.  In  the 
same  district  the  church  of  Kalb-Louzeh,  in  a  state 
of  almost  perfect  preservation,  offers  an  excellent 
occasion  to  study  the  outlines  and  details  of  a 
Christian  basilica.  Only  the  wall  of  a  lateral  nave 
and  a  corner  of  the  facade  are  wanting.  The  church 
is  114X54,  the  main  nave  25  feet  broad  and 
the  side  aisles  with  the  walls  12}  feet.  The  in- 
terior length   is   84   feet,  the  rest  being  taken  up 


A  CHRISTIAN  POMPEII.  299 

by  a  vestibule.  The  roof  did  not  rest  on  columns, 
but  on  six  great  pillars  set  far  apart,  and  leaving 
the  auditorium  as  unobstructed  as  possible.  The 
traces  of  the  chancel  railing  and  the  lofty  iconos- 
tasis  are  still  visible  in  the  choir,  which  is  raised 
some  three  feet  from  the  floor  of  the  church.  The 
sacristy  and  treasury  are  standing,  and  the  ini- 
tiated visitor  recognizes  the  credence-table  in  a 
little  mural  niche  within  the  apse.  Over  the 
sacristy  and  treasury  are  two  rooms  whose  use  is 
not  clear.  Though  more  beautiful,  the  church  at 
Kalb-Louzeh  is  less  complete  than  the  church 
of  Tourmanim,  whose  fine  porch,  loggia,  towers, 
and  side  walls  are  yet  in  good  order,  though  it  now 
serves  as  a  quarry  for  the  Arabs.  The  dimensions 
are  120  X  60  feet  and  the  breadth  of  the  main  nave 
30  feet.  It  is  built  on  a  kind  of  sub-basement, 
and  the  ornamentation  of  the  interior  was  quite 
varied,  consisting  of  acanthus  leaves,  serrated 
and  dentilated  patterns,  oval  mouldings,  and  the 
like.  'Tor  a  church  of  the  sixth  century, '^  says 
a  competent  critic,  ''it  is  wonderful  how  many 
elements  of  later  buildings  it  suggests.  Even 
the  western  towers  seem  to  be  indicated,  and 
except  .the  four  columns  of  the  gallery,  there 
is  very  little  to  recall  the  style  out  of  which  it 


300  A   CHRISTIAN  POMPEII. 

The  most  marvellous  of  all  the  Christian  archi- 
tectural creations  in  Syria  is  the  great  complex 
of  buildings  on  and  near  the  Kalaat-Seman,  some 
twenty  miles  east  of  Antioch.  Only  St.  Peter's 
at  Rome  and  the  unexecuted  mediaeval  plans  of 
Siena  and  Bologna  surpass  them  in  grandeur. 
On  a  steep  plateau  looking  over  the  valley  of  the 
Afrin  and  commanding  a  view  of  dozens  of  de- 
serted villages  and  villas,  rise  the  stupendous  ruins 
of  a  series  of  churches  built  in  honor  of  St.  Simeon 
Stylites,  one  of  the  most  renowned  of  the  early 
Christian  solitaries.  Though  these  ruins  have 
served  at  a  later  date  as  a  huge  Mohammedan 
fortress,  they  stand  in  unimpaired  majesty  and 
wrest  unstinted  admiration  from  all  who  make 
the  difficult  journey  to  behold  them.  Simeon 
Stylites  (a.d.  390-459)  was  the  most  remarkable 
of  the  ancient  pillar  saints,  an  almost  faultless 
model  of  mortification  and  self-renouncement. 
After  several  years  of  the  ordinary  solitary  life  he 
took  up  his  abode  upon  the  narrow  summit  of  a 
column  which  was  carried  by  successive  degrees 
to  a  height  of  forty-five  feet.  Here  he  spent  some 
thirty-seven  years  on  a  space  scarcely  six  feet 
square,  protected  from  falling  by  a  balustrade. 
Every  week  a  priest  climbed  up  to  this  strange 
eyrie  with  the  Blessed  Eucharist,  which  was  almost 


A  CHRISTIAN  POMPEII.  301 

the  only  food  of  the  holy  man.  His  days  were 
spent  in  prayer  with  outstretched  arms  and  in 
catechetical  preaching  to  the  multitudes  of  Chris- 
tians, Arabs,  Persians,  and  people  from  the  re- 
motest Orient,  who  came  to  ask  the  aid  of  his 
prayers.  Numerous  miracles  are  recorded  of  him, 
and  his  courage  in  defence  of  orthodoxy  and  jus- 
tice was  recognized  in  the  highest  imperial  circles. 
In  one  sense  he  was  the  St.  Bernard  of  his  age; 
the  Roman  world  looked  on  him  with  admiration 
and  saw  in  his  discourses  the  direct  communica- 
tions of  heaven.  When  he  died  (a.d.  459)  all  civil 
and  ecclesiastical  Antioch  came  forth  to  bear  back 
his  remains  to  the  queenly  city,  assured  that  they 
were  a  mightier  bulwark  against  the  Sassanides 
than  any  which  human  art  could  devise.  The 
State  was  aged  and  decaying,  confronted  with 
insoluble  problems,  but  it  was  Roman  and  Chris- 
tian, and  in  its  faith  and  secular  experience  found 
yet  the  means  to  hold  off  the  locust-like  multitudes 
of  Persia  and  Arabia. 

The  death  of  Simeon  did  not  put  an  end  to  the 
immense  pilgrimages  to  the  mountain  and  the 
column,  now  become  objects  of  veneration  from 
their  long  association  with  the  saint.  A  com- 
munity of  monks  was  settled  on  the  spot  and  vast 


302  A   CHRISTIAN  POMPEII. 

edifices  built  for  the  accommodation  of  the  visit- 
ing multitudes.  The  plateau  was  levelled  and 
the  huge  complex  of  churches,  whose  white  ruins 
are  yet  standing,  uplifted  in  honor  of  Simeon. 
In  the  centre  a  splendid  two-story  octagon  screen, 
completely  open  to  the  sky,  was  built  around  the 
holy  column,  like  a  huge  reliquary  in  stone. 
From  this  octagon  there  radiated  four  great 
churches,  one  towards  each  point  of  the  compass. 
Between  the  octagon  and  each  of  these  churches 
great  open  arches  permitted  the  sight  of  the 
column  from  all  sides.  Moreover,  there  was  space 
sufficient  left  between  the  octagon  and  the  abut- 
ting churches  for  the  peasantry  to  lead  about 
their  cattle  and  sheep  for  the  blessing  of  the 
saint,  who,  tradition  said,  was  seen  occasionally 
in  person,  floating  in  the  air,  dressed  in  his  long 
cloak  and  peculiar  mitre.  Other  arches  opened 
from  the  octagon  upon  the  chapels  which  were 
built  at  its  points  of  junction  with  the  walls  of 
the  churches,  and  upon  the  external  porticoes 
built  around  each  of  the  four  superb  basilicas. 
The  octagon,  still  standing,  is  over  100  feet 
throughout  in  diameter,  and  over  80  feet  in 
height.  The  column,  made  of  three  blocks  placed 
on  a  pedestal  hewn  out  of  the  bed-rock,  has 
fallen,  but  the  base  and  a  chipped  fragment  may 


A  CHRISTIAN  POMPEII.  303 

Btill  be  seen.    The  main  church,  the  only  one  with 
an   apse,    is   the   eastern   arm   of   the   cross.    Its 
length  is  140  feet  and  in  time  a  wall  of  separation 
was  built,  shutting  it  off  from  the  octagon.    The 
main    entrance    was    at    the    extremity    of    the 
southern    arm,    and    is    yet    admirably    preserved. 
The  great  double  entrance  suggests  the  multitudes 
who   once   came   here.    The   western   arm   of   the 
monument  is  built  upon  a  sharp  declivity  of  the 
monument,    the    necessary    level    being    obtained, 
as  at  Assisi,   by   powerful  terraces  and   substruc- 
tures, from  which  there  is  a  splendid  view  of  the 
valley  of  the  Afrin,  the  lake  of  Antioch,  and  the 
crests   of   Amanus.     There   are  traces   of  splendid 
coffered    ceilings,    mosaic    pavements,    and    orna- 
ments,   fragments    of   stucco    and    painting.    Rich 
marbles  and  sculptured  woods  were  of  course  em- 
ployed,   as   in   the   other   churches   of   Syria   and 
Palestine. 

It  would  be  too  tedious  to  describe  the  great 
courts,  the  conventual  or  clerical  buildings,  the 
sacristies,  treasuries,  tombs,  and  cemeteries  whose 
vast  ruins  are  yet  more  than  half  intact.  The 
imagination  is  almost  overwhelmed  as  it  tries  to 
reconstruct  this  magnificent  work  of  genius  finished 
at  once  without  any  sign  of  afterthought  or  res- 
toration.    It  is  the   most   complete  architectural 


304  A   CHRISTIAN  POMPEII. 

monument  of  the  Christian  Orient,  and  offers  to 
the  historian  and  the  antiquarian  the  most  per- 
fect example  of  the  condition  of  the  arts  in  Syria 
at  the  end  of  the  fifth  century,  which  is  the  true 
epoch   of  its   construction. 

This  summary  account  of  the  Christian  ruins 
of  Central  Syria  would  be  incomplete  without  a 
mention  of  the  great  religious  hostelries  of  which 
some  examples  are  still  in  excellent  preservation. 
At  the  foot  of  Kalaat-Seman  is  the  village  of  Deir- 
Seman,  in  which  the  ruins  of  a  vast  Christian  hos- 
telry or  inn  are  to  be  seen.  Such  buildings  were 
absolutely  needed  for  the  multitudes  who  could 
not  be  accommodated  on  the  plateau  or  in  private 
dwellings.  They  were  usually  called  Pandocheia, 
and  were  scarcely  more  than  large  halls,  only  more 
elegant  and  roomy  than  similar  monuments  else- 
where. The  pilgrim  house  at  Lourdes  recalls  im- 
perfectly the  internal  arrangement.  The  hos- 
telry at  Deir-Seman  was  a  building  of  two  stories, 
with  external  porticoes.  Over  the  door  is  yet  to 
be  read  the  inscription:  ''Christ,  Michael,  Gabriel. 
This  hostelry  was  finished  on  the  22d  of  July,  a.d. 
479.  Christ  be  gracious  to  us.  Simeon,  son  of 
.  .  .  was  the  builder."  At  Tourmanim,  whose 
church  we  have  already  described,  are  the  ruins 
of    a   similar   establishment.     Like    that    at    Deir- 


A   CHRISTIAN  POMPEII.  305 

Seman,  it  is  a  two-story  building,  with  outside 
porticoes  to  both  stories,  the  whole  constructed 
of  huge  blocks  of  stone,  and  enclosing  courtyards 
and  cisterns.  Such  houses  for  pilgrims  were  not 
uncommon  elsewhere.  The  Acts  of  Archelaus 
show  that  they  were  in  existence  in  these  regions 
two  hundred  years  earlier,  at  the  end  of  the  third 
century,  and  in  the  fourth  century  we  find  these 
creations  of  Christian  charity  at  Rome,  Porto, 
Constantinople,  Edessa,  C2esarea  in  Cappadocia, 
Hippo,  and  Lyons.  In  fact,  every  bishop  was 
obliged  to  maintain  a  house  for  the  hospitable 
shelter  of  strangers.  Julian  the  Apostate  at- 
tempted to  galvanize  the  dying  polytheism  by 
establishing  similar  refuges  for  the  heathen.  But 
he  came  too  late;  the  all-embracing  ingenious 
charity  of  the  Christians  had  preoccupied  every 
channel  of  social  beneficence.  They  had  filled 
the  world  with  hospitals,  refuges  for  the  sick  and 
blind  and  poor  and  old,  for  the  lepers  and  the 
foundlings;  in  a  word,  for  every  form  of  human 
need  and  misery.  And  in  so  doing  they  had  only 
carried  on  the  example  of  cosmopolitan  charity, 
of  which  from  the  beginning  the  Roman  Church 
was  the  chief  exponent,  closely  imitated  by  Cyp- 
rian at  Carthage  and  Dionysius  at  Alexandria. 
Not  the  least  factor  in  the  conversion  of  the  hea- 


306  A   CHRISTIAN  POMPEII. 

then  world  were  the  splendid  far-reaching  system 
and  spirit  of  Christian  charities.  So  true  is  it 
that  men  are  oftener  drawn  by  the  chords  of  Adam 
than  by  their  abstract  convictions. 

It  is  evident  that  in  Christian  Syria  from  the 
fourth  to  the  sixth  centuries  God  and  divine  wor- 
ship held  a  prominent  place  in  public  life.  The 
church  is  always  the  largest  and  most  elegant 
building  in  the  city  or  village,  while  the  private 
dwellings,  though  solid  and  commodious,  are  want- 
ing in  the  luxurious  richness  of  ornament  and  dis- 
play lavished  on  the  ecclesiastical  buildings. 
Christianity,  one  sees,  is  triumphant  and  con- 
scious of  its  victory.  Mediaeval  Catholicism  was 
never  more  outspoken  than  this  Syrian  society. 
Its  faith  is  bold  and  assertive,  its  piety  frank  and 
ardent.  There  is  not  a  figure  nor  an  inscription 
which  could  offend  the  most  delicate  soul.  Only 
belief  in  God  and  His  immediate,  loving  care,  only 
simple  and  heartfelt  prayers,  strike  the  passer-by. 
In  the  light  of  these  new  discoveries  it  would  be 
worth  while  to  examine  carefully  the  S5nriac  and 
Greek  writers  of  that  land  and  epoch.  They 
would  certainly  throw  light  upon  the  ruined  archi- 
tecture of  the  country,  and  in  turn  borrow  illus- 
tration from  it.  We  may  well  believe  that  the 
bishops  and  priests  had  much  to  do  with  this  mag- 


A  CHRISTIAN  POMPEII.  307 

nificent  development  of  art.  There  is  a  passage 
in  a  letter  of  Theodoret,  bishop  of  Cyrrhus,  north 
of  Antioch,  which  shows  how  large  a  share  these 
fifth-century  bishops  took  in  the  public  life  of  the 
time:  ''I  have  erected  from  my  ecclesiastical 
revenues  public  porticoes,  I  have  built  two  bridges 
on  the  largest  scale.  I  have  provided  baths  for 
the  people.  I  found  the  city  without  supply  from 
the  river,  and  I  furnished  an  aqueduct,  so  that 
water  was  as  abundant  as  it  had  been  scarce 
hitherto.  Not  a  cloak,  not  a  half  penny  have  I 
accepted  from  any  one;  not  a  loaf  of  bread,  not 
an  egg  has  any  one  of  my  household  accepted  ever 
yet.  Saving  the  tattered  clothes  in  which  I  am 
clad  I  have  allowed  myself  nothing."  The  conduct 
of  Theodoret  at  Cyrrhus  and  of  Synesius,  his  con- 
temporary, at  Ptolemais,  reveals  the  Oriental 
episcopate  of  the  fifth  century  as  no  less  public- 
spirited  men  than  their  brethren  of  Gaul  and  Italy 
during  the  barbarian  invasions.  The  Roman 
State  had  no  more  devoted  and  patriotic  sup- 
porters than  the  highly  cultured  ecclesiastics  who 
bore  the  brunt  of  the  human  floods  that  the  North 
and  the  Orient  rolled  down  upon  the  accumulated 
civilization  of  a  thousand  years. 

The    Christian    architecture    of    Syria    interests 
us  not  only  for  the  grace  of  its  proportions,  the 


A   CHRISTIAN  POMPEII. 

richness  of  the  decoration,  the  solemnity  and  noble 
elegance  of  the  parts,  but  also  because  the  study 
of  it  reveals  the  earliest  genesis  of  the  Gothic  ec- 
clesiastical style.  Here  in  the  Orient  we  find  the 
first  germs  of  the  evolution  of  the  peculiarly  Chris- 
tian architecture,  the  use  of  buttresses,  the  em- 
ployment of  pillars  to  support  the  roof,  the  pro- 
nounced ogival  arches,  the  pendentives  that  per- 
mit the  construction  of  light  and  elegant  domes. 
The  towers  of  the  middle  ages  were  anticipated 
in  principle  on  the  soil  of  Syria.  The  apse  of  the 
eastern  arm  of  Kalaat-Seman  recalls  the  best 
Romanesque,  while  the  clere-stories  and  the  cor- 
bels to  support  the  jutting  colonnettes  that  aid 
in  bearing  the  weight  of  the  roof  are  more  Gothic 
than  Roman.  Architects  have  noticed  that  the 
same  mathematical  formulas  have  been  employed 
in  the  construction  of  these  monuments  as  in  im- 
perial Rome  and  the  cities  of  the  middle  ages — a 
conclusive  proof  of  the  transmission  of  certain 
principles  from  the  most  ancient  guilds  of  masons 
and  builders.  The  West  at  all  times  has  borrowed 
largely  from  the  Orient.  The  Byzantine  Court 
of  the  sixth,  seventh,  and  eighth  centuries  was 
the  centre  of  artistic  skill,  as  is  shown  by  the  ele- 
gant presents  it  was  wont  to  send  to  the  Roman 
Church   and  the  Frankish   kings,     Throughout  the 


A   CHRISTIAN  POMPEII.  309 

middle  ages  Constantinople  remained  the  wealthiest 
and  most  refined  city  of  the  Christians.  Its 
artists  and  builders  came  West  not  only  after  the 
conquests  of  Mohammed  and  under  the  Icono- 
clasts, but  in  the  time  of  Charlemagne  and  the 
Saxon  Ottos.  They  followed  in  the  w^ake  of  the 
returning  Venetians;  St.  Mark's  at  Venice  and 
St.  Front  at  Perigueux  are  proofs  of  it.  When 
at  the  end  of  the  eleventh  century  Syria  fell  into 
the  hands  of  the  Crusaders,  El-Barah  was  yet  en- 
tire, and  became  a  Latin  see  with  a  priest  of 
Narbonne  for  its  first  occupant.  In  this  manner 
the  Gothic  architecture  is  originally  the  work  of 
Orientals.  Its  first  unknown  creators  came  from 
the  Orient,  with  no  intention  of  creating  new 
models,  but  only  of  reproducing  the  elegant  monu- 
ments scattered  in  rich  profusion  over  the  soil  of 
Asia  Minor  and  Syria,  but  nowhere  more  abun- 
dantly than  in  the  latter  country. 


THE   ".ROMAN  AFRICA''  OF  GASTON 
BOISSIER. 

During  more  than  a  half  century  the  civil  and 
military  employes  of  France  have  been  recon- 
structing the  long-vanished  life  of  their  Algerian 
colony.  They  have  defined  its  limits  as  a  Roman 
possession;  retraced  its  systems  of  roads,  aque- 
ducts, irrigation,  and  military  defence;  unearthed 
its  ancient  works  of  art  and  the  splendors  of  its 
architecture;  collected  and  classified  its  inscrip- 
tions; located  and  counted  its  cities  and  its  sources 
of  wealth.  In  a  word,  they  have  restored  to  the 
eye  of  the  mind,  in  minute  and  faithful  detail, 
the  land. and  the  society  which  were  the  scene  of 
the  riches  and  the  glory  of  Carthage,  of  the  hard- 
earned  triumphs  of  Scipio  Africanus,  Pompey, 
and  Julius  Csesar,  and  which,  after  some  centuries 
of  peaceful  prosperity,  beheld  in  rapid  succession 
every  misfortune  that  Moor,  Vandal,  or  Arab 
could   inflict  upon  it.     Around  the  shores  of  the 

Mediterranean   great   states   and    mighty   civiliza- 

311 


312    THE  ''ROMAN  AFRICA''  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER, 

tions  have  for  ages  innumerable  succeeded  one 
another,  each  building  upon  the  wreck  of  its  pred- 
ecessor, and  becoming  in  turn  the  stepping-stone 
for  the  ambitions  and  ideals  of  its  successor.  But 
nowhere  about  the  blue  waters  of  the  Inner  Sea 
has  the  awful  tragedy  of  the  life  of  nations  and 
races  been  acted  out  on  a  larger  scale  than  on  that 
furnished  by  the  long  strip  of  narrow  seashore, 
arid  desert,  and  mountainous  uplands,  known  from 
time  immemorial  as  Africa.  Never,  on  so  small  a 
spot,  have  there  been  given  to  man  so  many  public 
lessons  of  war  and  peace,  success  and  adversity, 
love  and  hate,  jealousy  and  ambition,  pride  and 
humiliation,  as  here.  On  this  checker-board  of 
the  world  one  can  observe  better  than  elsewhere 
the  origin,  acme,  decline,  and  decay  of  a  state. 
Within  its  narrow  area  opposing  religions  have 
contended  for  the  spirit  of  man  almost  from  the 
dawn  of  history.  Cultures  and  languages  have 
chased  one  another  across  this  shining  arena  just 
as  the  hot  simooms  of  the  desert  lift  in  turn  the 
long  stretches  of  sand,  and  with  scarcely  greater 
traces  of  their  passage.  From  the  unknowable 
aborigines  down  to  the  zouaves  of  France,  what 
a  procession  of  humanity  unrolls  its  long  lines 
from  the  Nile  to  Mount  Atlas— Egyptian,  Per- 
sian,   Mede,    Phoenician,    Greek,    Kelt    and    Kelti- 


THE  ''ROMAN  AFRICA''  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER.  313 

berian,  Roman,  Teuton,  Saracen,  and  Turk!  It 
has  been  ever  ''Dark  Africa,"  a  land  of  night  and 
mystery;  ever  beckoning  men  to  pierce  its  veil 
of  secrecy,  and  ever  lifting  against  them  its  im- 
passable barriers  of  rock  and  sand. 

In  a  book  no  less  entertaining  than  useful,  M: 
Gaston  Boissier  relates  the  great  labors  by  which 
within  fifty  years  the  enterprise,  public  and  pri- 
vate, of  Frenchmen  has  won  back  to  the  domain 
of  historical  science  the  long-lost  province  of  Roman 
Africa.  M.  Boissier  does  not  pretend  to  treat  of 
Egypt  and  the  Cyrenaica,  even  within  the  limits 
of  the  Roman  domination.  He  confines  himself 
strictly  to  the  territory  known  to  the  ancients 
as  Africa  proper  {AcppiKij  if  \6igo5),  from  the  pil- 
lars of  Hercules  to  the  basin  of  the  Great  Syrtis, 
or  from  the  western  slopes  of  Mount  Atlas  to  the 
territory  of  Barka.  Here,  during  more  than  eight 
centuries,  from  the  end  of  the  second  Punic  War 
(B.C.  201)  to  the  battle  of  Sufetula  (a.d.  647),  the 
influence  of  Rome  grew,  flourished,  and  decayed. 
It  is,  therefore,  properly  called  Roman  Africa,  and 
the  volume  before  us  relates  what  scholars  have 
been  able  to  gather  from  modern  researches 
among  its  ruins  concerning  its  civil  physiognomy 
during  the  memorable  centuries  when  it  was  the 
brightest   jewel   in  the   imperial   crown. 


314  THE  ''ROMAN  AFRICA"  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER. 

Who    were    the    aborigines    of    these    mountains 
and  deserts  whom  an  all-compehing  fate  brought 
under  the  yoke   of  Rome?     Our  most  ancient  au- 
thority is   the  Jugurtha  of  Sallust,  in  which   that 
historian  claims  to  have  learned  from  an  historical 
work  of  one  of  their  kings,  Hiempsal  II.,  that  they 
were  descended  from  the  remnants   of  the   army 
of  Hercules,   disbanded  in   Spain  after  the  hero's 
death.    The   Persians,    Medes,    and   Armenians   of 
that    army    crossed    the    straits    to    Africa.    The 
former  intermarried  with  the  semianimal  Getulian, 
and   from   them   descended   the   Nomads   or   Nu- 
midians,   who  eventually  settled   in  the  territory 
known    after    as    Carthage.     From    the    intermar- 
riage of  the  Medes  and  Armenians  with  the  Liby- 
ans came  the    Mauri  or  Moors.     It  is    probable, 
thinks  M.  Boissier,  that  Hiempsal  knew  as  much 
about  the  origin  of  his  barbarous  subjects  as  any 
chief   of   the   modern    Kabyles   or   Touaregs,    and 
that   the   pages   translated    for    Sallust   from   the 
royal  history  were  only  the  Greek  dress  of  a  vague, 
dim  legend  in  which  figured  some  African  deity 
with    attributes    like    those    of    Hercules.    Never- 
theless, any  Algerian   market-day  will   show  a  re- 
markable diversity  of  types,  and  it  may  be  that 
this  is  owing  to  emigration  from  across  the  straits, 
as  well  as  from  the  deserts  to  the  south  or  east. 


THE  ''ROMAN AFRICA"  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER.  315 

Certain  it  is  that  the  ancient  Berber  or  Libyan 
tongue  has  been  rediscovered,  that  its  peculiar 
alphabet  and  Ogham-like  funerary  literature  are 
now  known  to  some  extent,  and  that  it  extended 
its  domain  far  into  the  heart  of  Africa,  if  it  be  not 
yet  a  spoken  tongue  and  identical  with  the  tepr 
nagh  of  the  Touaregs. 

It  is  at  the  end  of  the  second  Pimic  War  that 
these  hardy  tribesmen  come  first  within  the  ken 
of  authentic  history.  The  necessities  of  self-de- 
fence and  the  barbarian  love  of  plunder  had 
ranged  them  now  on  the  side  of  Carthage  and 
now  on  that  of  Rome.  The  rivalries  and  mutual 
jealousy  of  Syphax  and  Gula  ended  in  the  over- 
throw of  the  former  and  the  establishment  in  the 
good  graces  of  Rome  of  Massinissa,  the  son  of  the 
latter.  A  man  of  infinite  wiles  and  resources, 
rising  fresh  and  undaunted  from  complete  defeat, 
Moor  to  the  marrow  in  his  fiery  passions  and  rest- 
less energy,  Massinissa  lived  to  the  age  of  ninety, 
the  powerful  ally  of  Rome.  From  his  capital 
of  Cirta,  set  upon  a  jutting  plateau  or  tongue- 
like hill,  all  garlanded  with  myrtle-clad  eminences 
and  odorous  olive  groves,  he  harassed  the  Queen 
of  the  Mediterranean,  by  turns  pirate  and  raider, 
now  leading  a  wild  razzia  among  the  villas  or 
country-seats  of  the  Punic  merchant  princes,  and 


316  THE  ''ROMAN  AFRICA''  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER. 

again  flying  on  the  wings  of  the  wind  to  the  moun- 
tain fastnesses  of  his  home.  The  curule  chair 
and  the  crown  of  gold,  the  palm-embroidered  toga 
and  the  ivory  baton  of  power,  were  conferred  on 
him  by  Rome,  but  the  Berber  had  to  pay,  like 
many  others,  the  bitter  price  of  his  disguised  servi- 
tude. Witness  the  romance  of  his  Sophonisba,  so 
admirably  portrayed  in  the  frescoes  of  Pompeii. 
After  his  death,  the  true  relations  with  Rome  of 
the  once  free  tribes  became  clear.  They  had  been 
enmeshed  by  the  arts  of  the  City,  and  from  equal 
allies  had  become  her  proteges.  The  sons  and 
grandsons  of  Massinissa  chafed  sorely  under  the 
surveillance  of  Rome,  more  hateful  than  their 
loose  subjection  to  Carthage,  and  the  embers  of 
unrest  and  opposition  broke  out  at  last  into  the 
Jugurthan  War,  that  helium  magnum  et  atrox 
variaque  victoria,  which  Sallust  has  painted  in 
immortal  colors,  forgetting  no  essential  trait  of 
African  life,  but  intent  mostly  on  stigmatizing 
forever  in  a  calm,  cool,  objective  way,  after  the 
manner  of  Thukydides,  the  ineptness,  venality, 
corruption,  and  utter  degeneracy  of  the  little  body 
of  oligarchs  who  mismanaged  from  the  banks  of 
the  Tiber  the  true  interests  of  the  Roman  people 
in  their  African  provinces.  Jugurtha  was  ^'a 
genuine   barbarian   chief — bold,    reckless,    faithless. 


THE  ''ROMAN  AFRICA''  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER.  317 

and  sanguinary — but  fickle  and  wavering  in  policy, 
and  incapable  of  that  steadiness  of  purpose  which 
can  alone  command  success."  He  would  long 
since  have  been  forgotten  were  it  not  for  the 
genius  of  his  Roman  portrait-painter,  and  his 
tragic  death  (b.c.  104)  in  the  Mamertine,  over 
whose  roof  Marius  led  his  veterans,  in  the  pomp 
of  triumph,  while  the  grandson  of  Massinissa  lay 
gasping  beneath  in  the  double  shadows  of  prison 
and  death.  His  grandson,  Juba  I.,  embraced 
the  side  of  Pompey  in  the  civil  wars,  and  paid  for 
his  unhappy  forecast  on  the  field  of  Thapsus  (b.c. 
46).  Both  he  and  Petreius,  the  Pompeian  gen- 
eral, died  in  a  suicidal  duel,  and  his  son,  Juba  II., 
succeeded  to  the  doubtful  honors  of  the  Numidian 
kingship.  For  this  Juba  the  kingdom  of  Maure- 
tania  was  created.  He  married  Cleopatra  Selene, 
the  daughter  of  Antony  and  Cleopatra,  and  took 
up  his  residence  at  lol,  which  he  rebuilt  and 
called  Csesarea,  and  which  is  now  the  coast  city  of 
Cherchell,  somewhat  west  of  Algiers.  The  sense 
of  Roman  prepotency  and  the  charm  of  Greek 
culture  and  manners,  brought  close  to  him  by  as- 
sociation with  the  well-bred  daughter  of  Antony 
and  Cleopatra,  made  another  man  of  Juba  II. 
He  cultivated  literary,  musical,  and  dramatic 
tastes,   took  to  history,   and  was  known  as  "the 


318  THE  ''ROMAN  AFRICA''  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER. 

best  historian  among  kings/'  and  became  the  pa- 
tron of  men  of  letters,  artists,  and  architects. 
Cherchell  yields,  from  time  to  time,  traces  of  his 
baths,  theatres,  and  porticoes;  above  all,  numer- 
ous statues  have  been  found  there,  fine  repUche 
of  the  masterpieces  of  Athens,  Rhodes,  Pergamos, 
and  Antioch.  Juba  and  Cleopatra  found  a  solace 
in  the  arts  of  peace  and  in  self-culture  for  the 
stormy  greatness  of  their  ancestors.  But  even 
this  self-effacement  could  not  stay  the  hand  of 
fate.  Their  son  Ptolemy  was  called  to  Rome  by 
Caligula,  where  he  succeeded  in  offending  the  van- 
ity of  the  Emperor,  and  was  starved  to  death 
under  very  cruel  circumstances.  With  him  ended 
the  Numidian  line  and  the  tribal  glories  of  Libya. 
Thenceforth  Mauretania  became,  like  Numidia,  a 
Roman  province,  under  the  administration  of  im- 
perial procurators. 

Long  before  the  name  or  fame  of  Rome  had 
crossed  the  Mediterranean  the  Libyan  tribesmen 
had  come  into  close  contact  with  a  people  dis- 
tinct from  the  Romans  in  blood,  language,  his- 
tory, tastes,  and  ambitions.  They  were  the 
Phoenicians,  the  great  traders  of  antiquity,  who 
had  ventured  from  port  to  port,  from  island  to 
island,  until  they  had  learned  to  brave  the  terrors 
of  the  high  sea,   and   carried  their  commerce   to 


THE  ''ROMAN  AFRICA''  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER.  319 

all  the  shores  bathed  by  its  waters.  They  were 
the  first  public  carriers  of  antiquity.  The  silver, 
iron,  and  tin  needed  by  the  peoples  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean were  gotten  through  them.  They  were 
the  intermediaries  for  the  arts  of  Egypt  and  As- 
syria, and  the  spices  and  jewels  of  the  far  Orient. 
Their  own  temper  was  more  commercial  than  ar- 
tistic, but  they  quickly  appreciated  the  money 
value  of  that  love  of  the  beautiful  innate  even 
in  the  savage  breast;  hence  the  "arts"  of  Sidon 
and  the  dyes  of  Tyre  were  famous  even  in  the  days 
when  the  Homeric  chants  were  being  welded  to- 
gether. They  catered  to  wealth  and  luxury;  set 
up  their  wares  in  the  ports  of  Greece,  Italy, 
Spain,  Gaul,  and  Africa;  bought,  sold,  bartered, 
and  even  turned  pirates  and  kidnappers  when  a 
fair  prize  hove  in  sight,  or  a  beautiful  boy  or 
girl  lingered  too  long  and  lovingly  on  their 
galleys,  gazing  at  the  wealth  of  "Ormuzd  or  of 
Ind."  In  time  they  began  to  feel  the  need  of 
fortified  sites  for  their  regular  markets,  and  so 
this  wonderful  people  built  its  trade-centres  all 
around  the  coasts  of  the  Mediterranean,  while 
they  dared  to  circumnavigate  Africa,  and  to 
reach  the  ports  of  Brittany  by  way  of  the  At- 
lantic. 
Their   history,    outside    of   their   native   soil,    is 


320  THE  "ROMAN  AFRICA''  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER. 

summed  up  in  one  word — Carthage.  Originally 
an  emporium  or  factory,  such  as  those  in  which 
the  Portuguese  and  the  Anglo-Indian  empires 
had  their  beginnings,  Carthage  was  the  daughter 
of  Tyre  and  Utica  (the  Old  City),  in  contradistinc- 
tion to  which  it  became  known  as  the  New  City 
(Carthada).  The  site  chosen  was  admirable — a 
small  hill  about  two  hundred  feet  high,  jutting 
out  upon  the  wide  expanse  of  ocean,  and  con- 
nected by  a  ridge  of  elevated  ground  with  the 
mountainous  mainland.  On  one  side  of  this  ridge 
lay  a  vast  lake,  now  a  salt-marsh,  and  on  the 
other  a  great  lagoon,  now  the  harbor  of  Tunis, 
but  which  the  skill  of  these  merchant-kings  con- 
verted early  into  a  double  port  of  great  strength. 
Thus  situate  between  mountains,  sea,  lake,  and 
fortified  harbor,  she  seemed  to  defy  the  world — a 
very  Gibraltar  for  the  protection  of  the  ten  thou- 
sand galleys  that  scudded  in  all  directions  to  and 
fro  from  her  busy  wharves.  Carthage  was  never 
a  military  city.  The  land  was  originally  peace- 
fully bought,  and  a  tribute  paid  for  years  to  the 
owners  of  the  soil.  When  necessity  forced  her 
to  war  with  the  surrounding  tribes,  or  to  protect 
her  trading  settlements  abroad,  she  hired  mer- 
cenaries to  do  the  fighting  at  the  bidding  and  di- 
rection of  some  great  families  of  the  city.    Seated 


THE  ''ROMAN AFRICA"  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER.   321 

at  his  counters  about  the  inner  port,  conversing 
on  his  commercial  prospects  on  the  Byrsa  (or 
Bozra  of  his  forefathers),  or  enjoying  an  ele- 
gant ease  in  his  rich  villa  beneath  the  shadows  of 
the  tall  mountains  landward,  the  Carthaginian 
thought  only  of  balances  and  credits,  of  cargoes 
and  lading-space,  of  mines  and  factories,  of  new 
fields  for  trade  and  new  objects  of  commerce.  He 
cared  little  for  history  or  literature,  and,  strange 
to  say,  though  he  taught  the  arts  of  commerce, 
luxury,  civilization  on  every  shore,  his  own  name 
has  been  preserved  to  us  by  his  enemies.  It  has 
been  well  said  that  ''vast  as  is  the  space  which 
the  fame  of  Carthage  fills  in  ancient  history,  the 
details  of  her  origin,  her  rise,  her  constitution, 
commerce,  arts,  and  religion  are  all  but  unknown.'' 
Her  libraries  were  one  day  disdainfully  aban- 
doned to  the  tender  mercies  of  the  Numidian 
princes,  and  the  only  echo  of  their  contents  is 
found  in  the  Jugurtha  of  Sallust,  for  whom  some 
of  these  Punic  records  were  translated  before  their 
final  disappearance.  What  we  know  of  the  great 
Punic  city  is  handed  down  by  Greeks  like  Aris- 
totle and  Polybius,  or  by  Romans  like  Livy.  But 
the  former,  though  liberal  and  accurate,  are 
not  extensive  in  their  treatment,  and  the  latter 
are  biassed    by    a    fierce    political    animosity,  the 


322  THE  ''ROMAN  AFRICA"  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER. 

natural    outcome    of    that    "helium    maxime    om- 
nium memorahile   quae  unquam  gesta  sunt"  (Livy, 
xxi.    1).    Diodoms,   Appian,  Justin,   and   the   lost 
works  of  Trogus  Pompeius   and   Theopompus   fill 
out  the  list  of  writers  who  tell  us  something  about 
Carthage.      Strange    fate!     Though    the    soil     of 
Africa  yields  up  daily  fresh  evidences  of  all  kinds 
to  the  prosperity  of  that  land  under  Roman  rule, 
scarcely    anything    turns    up    to    confirm    the    re- 
ports of  former  Punic  glory.    When   Scipio  Afri- 
canus  burned  the  city  to  the  ground  (b.c.  146)  at 
the  end  of  the   third  Punic  War,  he  did  his  work 
well,  for  of  the  two  cities  that  successively  occu- 
pied that  site  there  remains  but  here  and  there  a 
bit  of  wall,  a  broken  cistern,  a  dust  of  marble  and 
ashes,  over  which  the  plough  was  one  day  driven 
and  the  sacred  salt  scattered  for  an  eternal  male- 
diction.   It   was   reserved   for   the   Pere    Delattre, 
that  tireless   investigator,  to  discover   some   long- 
lost  relics  of  the  Punic  greatness.     They  are  tombs 
of  uncemented  stone,  with   triangular  stone  cover- 
cles.    The  brittle  dust  of  the  bodies  they  contain 
vanishes    beneath    the    first    glance,    leaving    only 
a  few  weapons,   or  objects   of   luxury,    or  vessels 
and  lamps  destined  to  contain  food   and  light  for 
the  last  long  journey— the  Punic  viaticum.     There 
are  also  many  funerary  tablets,  or  stelae,  dedicated 


THE  ''ROMAN  AFRICA''  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER.  323 

to  Tanit,  the  great  goddess  of  the  Carthaginians, 
called  Juno  or  Diana  by  the  Romans,  and  Dea 
Coelestis  by  the  Carthaginians.  Many  a  primitive 
Christian  had  reason  to  hate  her  name.  She  was 
mistress  of  the  city,  and  death  was  the  ordinary 
penalty  of  refusing  to  honor  her  divinity.  These 
stelae  are  found  in  thousands,  and  were  doubtless 
set  up  on  the  wall  or  within  the  enclosure  of  the 
square  courts  which  served  the  Semitic  Phoeni- 
cians as  temples  instead  of  the  round  cellae  of  the 
Greeks  and  Romans. 

No  pages  of  ancient  history  equal  in  human 
interest  the  relation  of  the  long  struggle  between 
Rome  and  Carthage  for  the  empire  of  the  sea.  It 
is  the  golden  age  of  Roman  virtue,  when  the  fru- 
gality and  hardihood  of  the  legionaries  were 
equalled  by  the  patriotism  and  self-sacrifice  of  the 
nobles,  and  municipal  devotion  was  carried  to 
the  highest  pitch  known  to  history.  The  military 
constitution  of  Carthage  was  weaker  than  that 
of  Rome,  and  her  near  allies  were  alien  in  blood 
and  sympathies  and  tongue;  yet  by  herculean 
efforts  she  rose  again  and  again  from  crushing 
defeats,  and  developed  in  the  stress  of  adversity 
marvellous  qualities  of  endurance  and  recovery, 
unsuspected  in  a  race  of  rich  farmers  and  shipping- 
clerks.     But    she  was    unequal  to  the  steady  im- 


324  THE  ''ROMAN  AFRICA''  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER. 

pact  of  Rome,  where  the  voice  of  fate  and  the 
needs  of  poHcy  had  raised  the  implacable  cry  of 
Carthago  delenda  est.  The  day  came  at  last,  after 
more  than  a  centm^y  of  bloody  struggle,  when 
the  daughter  of  Tyre,  owing  to  luxury  and  dis- 
sension, went  down  in  disaster,  leaving  to  posterity 
only  her  glorious  name  and  such  details  as  her 
enemies  chose  to  preserve  of  her  municipal  splen- 
dor and  her  proud  aristocracy,  her  prosperous 
colonies  and  foreign  conquests,  her  island  refuges 
and  resting-places,  her  motley  mercenary  armies 
and  her  costly  fleets,  her  plantations,  factories, 
and  mines,  her  tributes  and  customs  and  tolls — 
the  veriest  picture  of  a  great  modern  empire, 
strong  with  all  its  strength  and  weak  with  all  its 
weaknesses.  Men  will  never  cease,  however,  to 
admire  the  last  noble  struggle,  when,  penned  up 
between  the  mountains  and  the  sea,  like  a  lion- 
ess at  the  mouth  of  her  lair,  Carthage  gathered 
herself  for  a  last  resistance  within  her  triple  land- 
ward walls,  ready  to  die,  so  it  might  be  with  such 
glory  as  became  the  great  rival  of  Rome  and  the 
ancient  lineage  of  Tyre  and  Sidon.  It  is  Appian 
who  has  preserved  the  details  of  the  magnificent 
duel,  doubtless  from  Polybius,  for  the  pages 
of  his  narrative  bear  the  traces  of  the  exactness, 
the  calm,  unmoved  precision  of  that  prince  of  po- 


THE  ''ROMAN  AFRICA"  OF  GASTON BOISSIER.  325 

litical  historians.     From  the  hill  of  Byrsa  one  may 
trace  yet,  book  in  hand,  the  outlines  of  the  walls, 
the  place  of  the  tremendous  inner  rampart,  with 
its  stables  for  elephants  and  horses,  and  its  bar- 
racks   for    infantry    and    cavalry.     One    may    see 
where  Scipio  drew  up  his  land  lines  of  circimavalla- 
tion,  and  shut  up  on  their  peninsular  rock  the  last 
great  Semites  of  Africa.    One  may  yet  see,  deep 
under  the  tideless  waters  of  the  gulf,   the  great 
rocks  of  the  dike  or  breakwater  built  by  him  to 
blockade    the    fleet    which    the    despairing    genius 
of  Carthage  had  built  up  almost  out  of  her  dying 
members,  and  for  which  she  had  cut,  with  super- 
human  exertion,   a   new  exit   to   the   sea.    There 
are  yet  the  outlines  of  the  famous  port,  the  outer 
one   for  the   merchant   ships,   and   the   inner  one, 
with  its  own  high  walls,  for  the  war  galleys,  each 
in  its  dock  of  marble,  with  roof  of  stone  and  pillars 
of   Ionic   form,    perhaps   the   noblest   marine   por- 
tico  that   architect   ever   designed.     There   is   yet, 
in  the  enceinte  of  the  inner  port,  the  little  island 
where  the   admiral  from  his  high  tower  watched 
the  movement  within  and  without,  and  the  imag- 
ination is  free  to  repeople  the  quays  and  wharves, 
the  boulevards  and  squares    of    the  vicinity  with 
every  element  of  Oriental  life — physical,  economic, 
and    social;     moral,    political,    and    religious.    It 


326  THE  ''ROMAN  AFRICA"  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER. 

will  still,  perhaps,  fall  far  beneath  the  color,  variety, 
and  brio  of  actuality. 

In  the  early  spring  of  B.C.  146,  Carthage  van- 
ished from  the  earth.  Famine  and  pestilence 
had  done  good  work  during  the  preceding  winter, 
but  they  had  not  quenched  every  spark  of  courage 
in  the  hearts  of  the  devoted  citizens.  Even  when 
the  city  was  captured,  they  fought  on  in  the  three 
narrow  streets  that  led  to  the  citadel,  defending 
one  by  one  the  huge  six-story  houses  that  bordered 
them.  For  six  days  the  Romans  pushed  on  slowly 
from  roof  to  roof,  or  on  beams  laid  over  the  streets, 
putting  all  to  the  sword,  while  relays  of  legion- 
aries dragged  away  with  hooks  the  heaps  of  the 
slain,  or  took  the  places  of  their  colleagues 
wearied  with  slaughter.  The  streets  were  reek- 
ing mountains  of  blood  and  ashes  and  human 
flesh,  over  which  the  soldiers  drove  their  horses, 
and  the  clarion  called  again  and  again  to  the  des- 
perate charge.  Only  the  Fall  of  Jerusalem  recalls 
such  another  example  of  the  indomitable  resources 
of  Semitic  despair.  The  captured  sections  were 
set  on  fire,  to  clear  the  scene  of  action,  and  thus 
at  last  Scipio  stood  before  the  citadel  in  which 
were  massed  some  fifty  or  sixty  thousand  of  the 
people,  scarcely  a  tenth  of  the  normal  population. 
Life    was    granted    to    them.    One    last    act    re- 


THE  "ROMAN  AFRICA''  OF  GASTON BOISSIER.  327 

mained    in    this    great    human    tragedy.     Several 
hundred    Roman    deserters,    with    Hasdrubal,    the 
governor  of  the   city,   his  wife  and  children,   had 
taken   refuge   in   the   Temple   of   Esculapius.    For 
the    former    there    was    no    quarter.     Yielding    to 
famine,    they   set   fire    to   the   temple,    whereupon 
liasdrubal   rushed   forth   and   surrendered   himself. 
His  life  was  spared;    but  his  brave  wife,  standing 
on    the    highest    steps    of    the    temple    that    over- 
looked the  flaming  city,  the  placid  blue  sea,  and 
the  distant  hills,  reproached  the  coward  in  bitter 
terms,  and  immediately  cast  her  children  and  her- 
self   into    the    devouring    flames.     Carthage    was 
levelled   with  the   ground;  even   her  suburbs  and 
near  allied  townships  suffered  the  same  fate.    The 
plough  was  driven  over  the  site  of  a  city  older  per- 
haps than  Rome,  and  where  but  yesterday  700,000 
souls  drew  breath  of  life.     The  formal  curse  was 
pronoimced    on   it   that   neither   house   nor   corn- 
field   might    ever   reappear    on    the    spot.    Where 
the  industrious  Phoenicians  had  bustled   and   traf- 
ficked for  many  hundred  years,  Roman  slaves  pas- 
tured  henceforth   the    herds  of   their  distant  mas- 
ters.   When  the  remains  of  the  Carthaginian  city 
wall    were    recently    excavated,    they    were    found 
to  be  covered  with  a  layer  of  ashes  four  or  five 
feet  deep,  filled  with  half-charred  pieces  of  wood, 


328  THE  ''ROMAN  AFRICA''  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER. 

fragments  of  iron  and  projectiles, — sad  confirma- 
tion of  the  narrative  of  history.  Scipio  himself 
could  not  repress  sentiments  of  melancholy  as  he 
gazed  upon  the  wreck  of  his  fallen  enemy,  and 
we  are  told  that  the  verses  of  Homer  concerning 
the  fall  of  Troy  came  to  his  mind  like  a  presenti- 
ment of  retribution: 

"Ecrcrerai  rijjiap    orav  TtoroXaoXri  "IXio?  iptf, 
Kai  Tlpiauo's  Kai  AtroJ  evjifxeXioo  Hpiajxoio. 

The  Republic  was  more  or  less  embarrassed 
by  the  disappearance  of  Carthage.  It  had  enough 
of  conquests,  and  the  administration  of  these 
waterless  plains  and  treeless  mountains  seemed 
a  useless  item  on  the  budget.  Glory  and  ambition 
were  not  so  powerful  motives  as  we  sometimes 
imagine  among  the  Romans.  One  war  led  to 
another,  one  conquest  imposed  another,  and  it 
was  rather  by  political  necessity  than  by  free  de- 
sire that  they  became  masters  of  the  world.  For 
a  long  time  they  used  a  system  of  little  buffer- 
kingdoms  or  chieftaincies  which  had  their  advan- 
tages, but  caused  infinite  trouble  by  their  internal 
dissensions  or  velleities  of  independence.  They 
were  eventually  obliged  to  extend  their  provincial 
system  over  all  conquered  territory.  This  was 
soon  the  case  in  Africa,   where  they  could  trust 


THE  ''ROMAN  AFRICA"  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER,  329 

neither  the  Punic  population,  smarting  from  de- 
feat and  humiliation,  nor  the  restless,  capricious, 
avaricious  tribesmen  of  less  than  Punic  faith. 
Expedition  after  expedition  was  sent  out  in  pur- 
suit of  the  latter,  until  all  the  gorges  and  passes 
of  Atlas  had  been  traversed,  and  camps  and  forti- 
fied places  built  on  the  southern  slopes  of  these 
great  ranges,  in  face  of  the  deserts  and  their 
oases,  so  far  to  the  south  that  their  ruins,  it  is 
said,  are  yet  in  front  of  every  French  expedition 
undertaken  in  these  regions  for  scientific  or  mili- 
tary purposes.  Little  by  little  the  proconsular 
province  of  Africa  grew  beyond  the  narrow  Africa 
vetus  that  satisfied  Scipio,  until  it  came  to  embrace 
all  the  present  Tripoli,  Tunis,  Algeria,  and  a  part 
of  Morocco,  and  extended  in  length  from  the  sands 
of  Cyrenaica  to  the  Atlantic,  in  depth  far  into  the 
Sahara. 

In  the  division  of  the  provinces  between  Augus- 
tus and  the  Senate,  Africa  had  fallen  to  the  latter^s 
share,  and  was  governed  by  a  proconsul.  But 
within  fifty  years  Caligula  withdrew  from  that 
official  the  command  of  the  regular  troops,  and 
at  the  same  time  established  the  province  of 
Numidia,  with  a  legate  at  its  head,  in  whose  hands 
the  civil  and  military  jurisdiction,  though  dis- 
tinct   in    themselves,    were    placed.    The    procon- 


330  THE  "ROMAN  AFRICA''  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER, 

sulate  was  still  a  place  of  honor,  given  only  to  men 
of  senatorial  rank,  by  the  Senate,  and  but  for  one 
year.  It  yielded  a  salary  of  some  $40,000,  though 
that  sum  was  never  sufficient  for  the  expenses  of 
the  office.  Hence  it  was  usually  given  only  to 
members  of  very  wealthy  and  influential  families. 
The  legate  of  Numidia  was  also  chosen  from  sena- 
torial rank,  but  by  the  emperor,  and  for  an  indefi- 
nite time.  Towards  the  Atlantic  a  double  prov- 
ince of  Mauretania  was  formed,  Mauretania  Csesa- 
reensis,  with  Csesarea  or  Cherchell  for  capital,  and 
Mauretania  Tingitana,  with  Tingis  or  Tangier  for 
seat  of  government.  These  latter  provinces  were 
governed  by  procurators,  treated  as  part  of  the 
imperial  private  domain,  and  had  only  auxiliary 
native  troops  to  protect  them.  The  legate  or 
governor  of  Numidia  was  thus  the  chief  representa- 
tive of  Roman  might  and  right,  more  responsible 
than  any  other  official  for  order  and  peace  and 
the  general  welfare. 

Practically,  Africa  was  governed  by  the  soldiers. 
The  African  or  Numidian  legion,  in  its  best  days, 
counted  over  6000  men,  and  with  its  auxiliary 
cavalry  and  infantry  made  a  body  of  about  12,000. 
Carthage  had  its  special  garrison,  and  the  two 
Mauretanias  were  defended  by  some  15,000  native 
troops,  in  all  27,000  men  for  a  muth  larger  terri- 


THE  ''ROMAN  AFRICA''  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER.  331 

tory  than  now  needs  about  48,000  soldiers  of  the 
French  army.  These  troops  were  stationed  at 
the  proper  posts, — among  the  disaffected  natives, 
at  the  entrance  to  defiles  and  gorges,  in  oases,  on 
high  table-lands,  wherever  nature  or  experience 
suggested.  The  French  officers  have  rarely  been 
called  upon  to  better  the  selections  of  their  pred- 
ecessors. Every  camp  was  protected  by  a  four- 
square wall,  flanked  with  square  or  round  towers, 
and  these  castella  or  burgi  were  the  refuges  for  the 
people  and  their  flocks  whenever  some  wild  razzia 
swept  up  from  the  Sahara  or  the  Soudan.  The 
camps  were  connected  with  one  another  by  a  sys- 
tem of  telegraph  towers,  on  which  lights  were 
burned,  or  elevated  and  depressed,  according  to 
a  system  of  aerial  telegraphing.  Great  roads, 
heavily  macadamized  and  covered  with  broad 
blocks  of  granite,  bound  the  military  stations  to- 
gether, and  at  the  first  alarm,  horse  and  infantry 
were  out  and  away  over  them,  in  hot  chase  of 
the  marauders,  ready  to  traverse  half  Africa, 
till  they  got  back  the  booty  or  chastised  the 
robbers.  In  cases  of  general  revolt,  when  the 
private  vendettas  of  the  Berber  chiefs  ceased  for 
a  moment,  legions  were  hurried  over,  at  great 
expense,  from  Spain  or  Syria,  or  the  Danube. 
By  skilful    placing,    rapid  movements,  energy  and 


332  THE  ''ROMAN AFRICA"  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER, 

daring,  knowledge  of  the  soil  and  the  people, 
and  mutual  support  the  commanders  of  these 
stationary  troops  of  Africa  held  the  land  for 
centuries. 

In  military  history  there  is  scarcely  anything 
more  interesting  than  the  story  of  the  famous  legion 
of  Africa,  the  Legio  Tertia  Augusta,  one  of  the 
original  republican  legions,  incorporated  by  Au- 
gustus into  his  ranks,  named  after  him,  and,  as  it 
seems,  especially  devoted  to  the  new  Caesar.  At 
his  death  this  legion  was  located  in  Africa.  At 
the  end  of  the  third  century  it  was  still  in  Africa, 
and  its  peculiar  life,  and  the  city  of  Lambesa 
where  it  lived,  are  well  worth  a  few  lines  in  this 
summary  of  African  conditions  under  the  Em- 
pire. Originally  located  at  Tebessa  (Theveste), 
it  was  eventually  removed  to  Lambesa  to  ward 
off  the  inroads  of  the  tribes  of  Mount  Aures  and 
the  Sahara.  Here  are  yet  the  vast  ruins  of  its 
camp,  situate  on  a  hillside,  close  to  running 
water,  in  full  view  of  the  surrounding  plains.  Its 
dimensions  are  over  sixteen  hundred  feet  in  length 
and  about  fourteen  hundred  in  breadth.  Like 
all  Roman  camps,  it  was  surrounded  by  a  wall, 
some  twelve  feet  in  height,  until  very  lately.  Two 
main  roads  crossed  it  at  right  angles,  and  at  the 
point  of  their  meeting  stand  yet  the  ruined  walls 


THE  ''ROMAN  AFRICA''  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER,   333 

of  the  marble  prsetorium.  The  northern  wall  is 
pierced  by  three  doors,  the  central  one  of  which 
is  quite  ornamental,  with  lateral  niches  for  statues, 
and  military  emblems  overhead.  In  the  neigh- 
borhood are  the  bases  of  overturned  statues,  the 
walls  of  baths,  halls,  and  other  buildings.  In  front 
of  the  prsetorium  are  the  sites  of  the  altar,  where 
the  chiefs  of  the  legion  examined  the  auspices, 
the  tribunal  where  they  rendered  justice,  and  the 
mound  of  turf  from  which  they  harangued  the 
soldiers.  The  building  dates  from  a.d.  268,  and 
though  built  during  the  full  decadence  of  Roman 
art,  and  wanting  in  elegance,  preserves  much  of 
the  ancient  majesty.  It  has  been  conjectured, 
from  the  absence  of  tiles,  that  the  prsetorium  was 
not  inhabited.  In  fact,  it  was  only  a  great  open 
atrium.  The  general,  with  his  officers  and  sol- 
diers, lived  about  a  mile  away  from  the  camp,  a 
spot  which  had  once,  no  doubt,  been  the  site  of 
the  canahae  legionis,  or  the  sutler's  quarters,  but 
in  time  became  a  municipality,  entitling  itself 
proudly  Respuhlica  Lamhaesitanorum.  Here  are  the 
remains  of  two  fora,  a  colonnade,  a  capitolium, 
elegant  temples,  porticos,  and  baths;  all  the  signs, 
in  fact,  of  peace  and  luxury,  strange  equipments 
for  so  rude  a  life  as  that  of  a  frontier  legionary  in 
Africa.     Dux  foemina  facti.    It   had   long   been   a 


334  THE  ''ROMAN  AFRICA"  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER. 

vexed  question  whether  the  wives  of  the  chief 
officers  should  be  allowed  to  accompany  their  hus- 
bands to  the  provinces,  and  the  Senate  was  often 
divided  as  to  its  propriety,  some  maintaining  that 
they  were  causes  of  disorder  in  peace  and  terror 
in  war;  others,  that  they  did  much  more  harm 
when  left  alone  in  the  city.  The  question  for  the 
common  soldiers  arose  as  often  as  a  legion  was 
left  in  garrison.  At  the  end  of  the  second  century 
Septimius  Severus  permitted  the  legionaries  to 
retain  their  wives.  Unions  formed  during  mili- 
tary service,  formerly  illegal,  were  now  more  than 
tolerated,  and  the  children  inscribed  in  the  tribe 
Pollia.  Thus  it  came  about  that  at  Lambesa,  as 
at  many  other  points,  a  military  city  arose,  about 
which  we  have  abundant  information,  owing  to 
the  mass  of  inscriptions  with  which  the  ground 
of  the  camp  and  the  city  is  almost  littered.  From 
these  books  of  stone  we  learn  the  daily  life,  the 
history  of  the  legion,  the  names  of  its  legates  and 
subaltern  officers.  It  had  its  gala  days,  such  as 
the  visit  of  Hadrian  in  the  second  quarter  of  the 
second  century.  We  see  that  it  recruited  its  ranks 
from  the  children  born  to  the  soliders,  that  they 
were  in  love  with  their  service,  and  received  abun- 
dant pay.  We  learn  of  the  existence  of  mutual 
insurance  societies  among  soldiers  and  officers,   of 


THE  ''ROMAN  AFRICA''  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER.  335 

pension  funds  by  which  the  common  veteran  re- 
ceived as  much  as  $500  on  retiring  from  service, 
not  to  speak  of  his  savings  from  his  pay,  imperial 
gifts,  and  other  sources.  Every  class  of  subal- 
terns had  its  own  mess,  its  special  schola,  with  its 
own  fimd,  from  which  money  was  forthcoming  not 
only  in  case  of  death,  but  even  for  journeys  to 
Rome  in  search  of  advancement.  In  a  word,  the 
inscriptions  of  Lambesa  permit  us  to  reconstruct 
with  great  accuracy  the  real  life  and  feelings  of  the 
common  soldier  imder  favorable  auspices.  Yet 
his  life  was  far  from  an  idle  one.  Long  wars  like 
that  of  Tacfarinas  and  Mazippa  in  the  time  of  Ti- 
berius, and  the  endless  raids  of  the  never-subdued 
tribes  of  the  hills  and  deserts,  kept  him  ever  on 
the  alert.  He  was  not  in  Gaul  or  Germany,  where 
the  enemy  was  before  him,  but  in  Africa,  where 
the  enemy  lived  near  by,  on  all  sides,  in  semi- 
peaceful  relations,  but  ever  ready  to  swoop  down 
like  a  hawk  upon  an  unguarded  farm,  or  villa, 
or  town,  and  carry  off  booty  and  captives.  The 
redemption  of  captives  is  mentioned  in  these 
stone  records,  and  they  are  thus  a  strange  con- 
firmation of  that  touching  letter  of  St.  Cyprian, 
in  which  he  tells  us  of  the  collection  of  $4,000 
that  he  took  up  in  his  cathedral  to  redeem  Chris- 
tian brethren  who  had  been  carried  off  in  some 
Berber  raids: 


336  THE  ''ROMAN  AFRICA''  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER. 

It  is  impossible  to  travel  within  the  limits  of 
Roman  Africa  without  being  struck  by  the  signs 
of  former  prosperity.  Along  the  wastes  of  sand 
and  stretches  of  thin  pasturage,  thousands  of  ruins 
meet  the  eye.  Here  are  the  sites  of  great  cities, 
with  populations  of  from  twenty  to  one  hundred 
thousand,  towns,  villages,  and  hamlets,  once  rich 
and  prosperous;  there  are  the  outlines  of  villas, 
farms,  domains.  Everywhere  are  visible  evidences 
of  a  public  and  private  life  of  the  highest  order, 
columns,  plinths,  mosaics,  inscriptions,  tessellated 
floors  and  sculptured  walls,  wells,  cisterns,  foun- 
tains, terraces — all  the  details  of  the  most  cultured 
existence.  In  spite  of  obstacles  from  men  and 
nature,  the  Romans  made  the  soil  flourish  like  a 
paradise,  and  under  them  the  population  grew, 
the  harvests  increased,  and  abundance  filled  the 
land  as  long  as  the  City  was  herself  well  governed 
and  prosperous.  The  nomadic  instincts  of  the 
people,  even  of  those  who  were  partially  civilized 
and  attached  to  the  soil,  were  a  great  hindrance 
at  first.  There  is  perfect  truth  in  those  verses 
of  Vergil,  in  which  he  describes  the  African  shep- 
herd, taking  suddenly  with  him  his  dog,  his  arms, 
his  household,  and  his  flocks,  and  burying  himself 
in  the  desert: 

"Saepe  diem  noctemque  et  totum  ex  ordine  mensem 
Pascitur,  itque  pecus  longa  in  deserta  sine  uUis 
Hospitiis,  tantum  campi  jacet!"     (Georg.  III.  343.) 


THE  ''ROMAN  AFRICA''  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER.  337 

Long  before  the  Arab  and  Berber,  the  Numi- 
dian  and  the  Getulian  had  the  same  instincts  and 
habits.  The  Romans  managed  to  cm'b  these 
wandering  tribes,  and  to  fix  them  in  hamlets, 
which  soon  became  towns,  and  to  widen  the  mar- 
gins of  arable  land,  and  to  increase  the  belts  of 
orchard  and  vineyard  and  olive-grove.  When 
they  first  came  as  administrators  of  the  land,  it 
grew  little  outside  of  the  wild  alfa  and  the  dwarf 
palm,  and  had  much  the  same  aspect  and  climate 
as  it  has  to-day.  But  they  treasured  the  water. 
They  enlarged  the  natural  springs,  or  discovered 
new  ones,  and  piped  every  veinlet  of  running  water. 
They  sheltered  the  fountains  under  marble  porti- 
coes, and  caused  their  waters  to  dance  in  every 
smallest  hamlet  over  marble  steps  and  terraces, 
and  to  fall  into  great  basins  for  popular  use  and 
refreshment.  The  rich  built  fountains  or  repaired 
or  decorated  them,  and  dying,  left  behind  a  grate- 
ful public  whose  thankfulness  is  yet  visible  in  the 
great  slabs  of  marble  on  which  they  inscribed  the 
good  deeds  of  their  benefactors.  The  earth  was 
probed  for  wells  where  they  were  wanting.  Cis- 
terns, private  and  public,  were  constructed  on 
an  enormous  scale,  and  even  the  sluggish  turbid 
rivers  were  danamed  to  make  lakes  and  reservoirs, 
whose  use  was  prescribed  by  law,  and  made  known 


338  THE  *' ROMAN  AFRICA''  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER. 

by  public  inscriptions  set  up  where  all  could  read 
them.  All  that  the  soil  needed  was  industry  and 
water.  The  latter  they  furnished  on  the  largest 
and  most  economic  scale.  Their  own  energy  and 
hardihood  encouraged  the  native,  who  found  his 
toil  remunerative  and  ennobling.  Pliny  has  left 
us  a  picture,  true  to-day,  of  the  homely  African 
laborer  turning  up  the  soil  with  his  primitive 
plough-share  to  which  are  attached  his  little  ass 
and  his  wife.  The  soil  is  light,  but  fertile,  and 
the  first  rains  cause  the  seeds  to  sprout  and  the 
trees  to  blossom,  and  the  vines  to  swell  with  sap, 
as  nowhere  else.  The  markets  were  numerous, 
not  only  in  every  city  and  seaport,  but  far  inland. 
The  domains  of  private  individuals  had  often 
their  own  special  markets,  authorized  by  the 
Senate,  where  the  wheat  and  the  wine  and  the  oil 
were  stored  up,  somewhat  as  in  the  great  elevators 
along  the  lines  of  our  Northwestern  railroads. 

The  products  of  Africa  were  precious,  for  when 
Sicily  and  Sardinia  failed  to  furnish  food  for  the 
City,  the  nourishment  of  its  million  or  more  souls 
fell  upon  Egypt  and  Africa.  Between  them  they 
had  to  furnish  in  equal  shares  two-thirds  of  the 
wheat  needed  for  Roman  consumption,  i.e.,  over 
5,000,000  bushels.  Its  collection  and  delivery 
were  entrusted  to  a  special  authority,   the   prae- 


THE  ''ROMAN AFRICA"  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER.  339 

fectiis  annonae,  with  procurators  and  fixed  ports, 
and,  in  time,  special  fleets  and  a  special  service 
of  sailors.  When  the  corn-fleets  were  due  at  Pu- 
teoli  or  Ostia,  the  citizens  crowded  the  wharves 
and  quays  and  welcomed  from  afar  the  first  light 
galleys  that  preceded  and  announced  the  coming 
of  the  annona  or  food  supply  for  the  year.  The 
Annona  Sanda  was  soon  a  goddess,  with  bare 
shoulder  and  arms,  a  crescent  upon  her  forehead, 
ears  of  corn  in  one  hand,  and  cornucopise  at  her 
feet.  She  was  the  patron  of  the  corn  and  wheat 
ports,  and  of  the  population  who  lived  by  the 
transportation  of  these  cereals.  Africa  was,  in 
those  days,  looked  on  as  the  soul  of  the  republic, 
and  Juvenal  only  expressed  the  feeling  of  all  Rome 
when  he  insists  that  the  harvesters  of  Africa  shall 
be  justly  dealt  with 

"Parce  et  messoribus  illis 
Qui  saturant  Urbem  circo  scenaeque  vacantem." 

After  the  conquest  of  Africa  many  of  the  original 
owners  of  the  soil  were  scattered  in  slavery,  or 
driven  to  the  fastnesses  of  the  hills.  The  aban- 
doned lands  were  sold  or  given  away,  and  in  the 
early  imperial  times  much  of  them  passed  into  the* 
hands  of  the  imperial  family,  by  will,  or  confisca- 
tion, or  by  confusion  of  the  imperial  domain  with 
the  ager  puUicus.    Old   Roman  families,   like  the 


340  THE  "ROMAN  AFRICA''  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER. 

Lollii  and  the  Arii  Antonini,  established  them- 
selves at  an  early  date  on  vast  latifundia.  Ad- 
venturers and  fortunate  soldiers  took  up  estates, 
like  the  Cromwellians  in  Ireland,  and  soon  all 
Roman  Africa  was  in  the  hands  of  a  few  great 
landlords,  who  alone  had  the  capital  necessary 
to  cultivate  the  soil  and  carry  on  the  victualling 
of  Rome.  We  are  told  that  under  Nero  six  men 
owned  half  of  Roman  Africa,  and  that  he  put  them 
all  to  death,  in  order  to  confiscate  their  lands. 
The  lives  of  these  Roman  land-owners  were  regal 
in  their  splendor.  A  happy  chance  has  revealed 
to  us  a  fair  portrait  of  their  daily  life.  On  the 
road  from  Constantino  to  Setif,  in  Algeria,  an 
Arab  laborer  came  across  obstructions  to  his 
plough  which  proved  to  be  the  ruins  of  a  great 
bath,  some  2600  feet  square,  with  twenty-one 
large  halls,  a  magnificent  atrium,  a  vast  swimming- 
bath,  and  all  the  appurtenances  of  the  most  lux- 
urious establishment  of  the  kind.  All  this  gran- 
deur was  for  the  accommodation  of  one  man,  but 
a  man  of  princely  estate,  with  villages  and  ham- 
lets dependent  on  him,  multitudes  of  slaves,  and 
a  host  of  agents,  bailiffs,  and  the  like. 

Among  the  ruins  was  discovered  a  great  mosaic, 
on  which  figure  his  house  with  its  domed  wings, 
its  central  tower  and    its  long  lines  of  outhouses. 


THE  ''ROMAN  AFRICA''  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER,  341 

Above  the  house  is  written  the  name  of  this  great 
gentleman,  Pompeianus.  His  stables  are  shown, 
and  the  names  of  his  favorite  horses  are  given: 
Delicatus,  Pullentianus,  Titos,  Scholasticus.  Of  Al- 
ius he  says:  ^'Unus  es,  ut  mons  exultas,"  and  of  his 
racer  PoUdoxus  he  puts  down:  '^Vincas,  non  vin- 
cas,  te  amamus,  Polidoxe.'^  Africa  was  the  para- 
dise of  jockeys  in  the  Roman  times.  They  were 
usually  Moors,  to  the  manner  born.  They  learned 
their  trade  on  such  estates  as  those  of  Pompei- 
anus, and  amassed  enormous  fortunes  at  Rome  and 
elsewhere,  where  the  horse-races  of  the  circus  were 
the  greatest  passion  of  the  people.  We  have  yet 
odd  proofs  of  this  passion  in  the  prayers  and  im- 
precations inscribed  by  the  jockeys  on  plaques  of 
lead  and  inserted  in  the  curious  African  tombs 
through  orifices  intended  for  libations  or  suppli- 
cations. On  the  mosaic  of  Pompeianus  are  also 
shown  his  antelope  park  and  his  entire  hunting 
outfit,  with  the  houses  of  his  chief  herdsman, 
chief  forester,  etc.  Not  even  his  lady^s  arbor  is 
wanting,  for  she  is  seen  seated  beneath  a 
tree,  elegantly  dressed,  with  fan  in  hand,  and 
waited  on  by  a  young  attendant  or  admirer. 
Overhead  is  written  Filosofi  locus,  whether  in 
mild  satire  or  as  a  compliment,  it  is  not  easy  to 
say. 


342  THE  ''ROMAN AFRICA''  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER. 

These  private  estates  were  surpassed  in  size  and 
importance  by  the  imperial  domains.  The  latter 
were  called  Saltus,  for  they  had  been  originally 
great  stretches  of  woodland  and  pasturage,  which 
had  maintained  their  ancient  name  long  after 
they  had  become  vineyard,  olive-grove,  and  wav- 
ing fields  of  wheat  and  corn.  They  were  like  our 
immense  Western  ranches.  One  of  them,  Enfida, 
contained  some  330,000  acres.  They  were  man- 
aged from  Carthage  by  a  system  of  procurators 
and  sublet  to  condudores,  who  let  them  out  again 
in  small  lots,  or  cultivated  them  directly,  and  at 
the  same  time  extorted  from  the  coloni  of  these 
domains  whatever  they  could.  These  coloni  seem 
to  have  been  holders  of  poor  or  inferior  or  aban- 
doned lands,  for  their  leases  apparently  ran  on 
indefinitely,  while  that  of  the  conductores  ceased 
every  five  years.  But  the  latter  were  wealthy 
and  oppressed  the  former,  compelhng  them  to 
work  gratuitously  beyond  the  fixed  number  of 
days.  An  inscription  found  on  the  site  of  the 
Saltus  Burunitanus,  in  the  valley  of  the  Bagrada, 
reveals  some  curious  details  concerning  these  im- 
perial estates.  It  is  the  history  of  an  appeal  to 
the  Emperor  Commodus  by  the  coloni  of  the  estate 
against  the  iniquitous  decision  of  a  procurator  in 
favor  of  the  conductores,   and  in  opposition  to  a 


THE  ''ROMAN AFRICA"  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER.  343 

law  of  Hadrian  fixing  the  obligatory  labor  of  the 
coloni  at  six  days  yearly.  Not  only  do  we  see 
here  what  an  army  of  officials,  managers,  ad- 
ministrators, notaries,  bookkeepers,  and  the  like 
this  great  domain  employed,  but  we  find  in  the 
inscription,  put  up  by  the  coloni  in  gratitude  for 
a  favorable  reply,  traces  to  show  that  the  insti- 
tution of  the  colonatuSj  or  obligatory  service  of 
the  soil,  existed  in  Africa  at  the  end  of  the  second 
century,  though  hitherto  it  had  been  supposed 
to  date  from  the  beginning  of  the  fourth.  Be- 
sides these  landed  estates,  the  imperial  treasury 
governed  nearly  all  the  known  mines  of  the 
Roman  world.  Africa  had  many  of  gold,  silver, 
copper,  and  lead,  and  to  Christians  they  are  of 
great  interest,  for  we  have  yet  the  letters  that  the 
Christian  martyrs  addressed  to  St.  Cyprian  from 
the  depths  of  these  sombre  galleries,  where  they 
froze  in  winter  and  roasted  in  summer,  badly 
fed,  badly  clothed,  but  solaced  by  their  devotion 
to  Jesus  Christ,  and  by  the  letters  of  bishops 
like  Cyprian,  which  ^'made  the  horrid  moun- 
tains to  bloom  like  smiling  plains,  and  the 
frightful  stench  of  the  lamps  in  the  galleries  to 
smell  like  the  perfumes  of  flowers.''  The  mines 
of  Sigus,  whence  these  letters  were  sent,  have 
not  yet  been  found,  but  the  quarries  of  Numidian 


344  THE  ''ROMAN AFRICA"  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER. 

marble,  so  precious  and  famous  in  imperial  times, 
are  still  worked  as  of  old.  At  Chemtou  there 
are  yet  above  ground  blocks  of  marble,  quar- 
ried over  fifteen  hundred  years  ago,  with  their 
numbers  and  marks,  showing  their  destination 
and  the  exact  shaft  or  gallery  from  which  they 
came. 

Wherever  Rome  planted  her  victorious  eagles, 
she  introduced,  as  a  rule,  a  municipal  system  sim- 
ilar to  her  own.    In  Africa  she  enlarged  the  cities 
of   ancient   date   and   built   new   ones.     The   An- 
tonines   and   Severi   were   the   chief   promoters   of 
African    prosperity;    during  their  reign  the   cities 
multiplied,    the   villages    became    towns,   and    the 
towns  developed  into  municipalities  and  large  col- 
onies.    Withal,  the  work  went  on  slowly.      Even 
Eoman   Carthage,    after   the    fruitless    attempt   of 
the  Gracchi   to   rebuild   her,  and   the   more   suc- 
cessful one  of  Julius  Caesar  and  Augustus,  took  a 
long  time  to  reach   the  rank  of  third  city  of  the 
Empire.    But  the   patience   and   devotion   of  the 
Romans  worked   wonders  here   as  elsewhere,   and 
covered  the  soil  with  a  network  of  cities  unsur- 
passed   even    in    Asia    Minor  .for    number     and 
wealth.     That  they  were  numerous  is  sho^vn  from 
the    fact    that    in    the    fifth    century    the    African 
church  had  between  four  and  five  hundred  episco- 


THE  "ROMAN  AFRICA"  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER.  345 

pal  sees,  and  their  wealth  is  evidenced  by  the 
countless  ruins  which  loom  up  on  all  sides.  One 
of  these  ruined  cities  attracts  in  a  special  manner 
the  archaeologist  and  the  historian,  for,  though 
utterly  overthrown,  it  still  contains  the  vestiges 
in  situ  of  most  of  its  public  buildings.  The  little 
city  of  Timgad,  the  ancient  Thamugadi  in  Numi- 
dia,  lies  on  the  road  between  Batna  and  Tebessa, 
a  picturesque  mass  of  walls  and  columns  scattered 
over  the  slope  of  one  of  the  foot-hills  of  Mount 
Aures.  Close  by  is  a  narrow  defile  in  the  hills 
to  defend  which  the  site  was  originally  chosen. 
With  the  spread  of  the  Roman  peace,  Timgad 
ceased  to  be  a  fortified  castle  or  burg,  and  be- 
came an  open  city,  perhaps  a  great  market  place 
for  the  neighboring  tribes,  for  few  private  houses 
have  been  found  within  its  limits.  The  entrance 
to  these  instructive  ruins  is  guarded  by  an  elegant 
and  graceful  arch,  like  that  of  Septimius  Severus 
at  Rome,  and  we  gather  from  the  inscription 
which  once  decorated  its  facade  that  the  town 
itself  owed  its  origin  to  the  act  of  Trajan,  in  the 
year  100  a.d.  In  117  a.d.  the  principal  buildings 
of  the  forum  were  finished,  and  not  too  hastily, 
since  after  eighteen  centuries  so  much  of  the  work 
is  still  standing.  The  principal  street,  broad  and 
straight,    has    been    cleared    for    several    himdred 


346  THE  ''ROMAN  AFRICA''  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER, 

feet,  and  we  may  admire  the  remnants  of  the  sohd 
paving,  the  sidewalks  with  their  long  arched  por- 
ticoes, the  sites  of  the  public  fountains  and  other 
appurtenances  of  a  luxurious  municipal  life.  The 
ruts  worn  in  the  streets  by  trade  and  travel  are 
still  visible  as  we  go  up  to  the  forum.  Pass- 
ing through  a  monumental  entrance  and  up  a 
flight  of  ten  steps  we  stand  in  this  centre  of  the 
social  and  pohtical  life  of  an  African  city  of  eigh- 
teen centuries  ago.  It  is  small,  but  the  ancients 
did  not  especially  admire  our  great  public  squares. 
They  loved  to  chat  together  in  the  forum,  to  avoid 
under  its  porticoes  the  rain  and  the  sun,  to  discuss 
business  and  politics  at  the  bases  of  the  forest  of 
imperial  statues  which  it  contained,  to  cast  dice 
on  the  squares  inlaid  for  that  purpose  on  the  mar- 
ble floor  of  the  enclosure.  The  forum  of  Timgad 
had  an  elevated  sidewalk,  covered  by  porticoes 
supported  by  elegant  columns.  One  descended 
by  steps  into  the  open  space  crowded  with  statues 
in  honor  of  the  imperial  family,  benefactors,  pro- 
tectors, and  notable  citizens.  On  the  east  side 
stood  the  basilica,  or  Hall  of  Justice,  in  the  apse 
of  which  was  probably  a  colossal  statue  of  the 
founder  Trajan.  On  the  west  side  stood  once  a 
statue  of  Fortuna  Augusta,  flanked  on  one  side  by 
the  assembly  hall  of  the  municipal  Curia,  and  on 


THE  ''ROMAN  AFRICA''  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER.  347 

the  other  by  a  temple,  in  front  of  which  ran  a  ter- 
race, interrupting  the  colonnade  of  the  portico,  and 
from  which  the  public  discourses  were  probably 
delivered. 

The  forum  was  to  the  African  all  that  the 
agora  ever  was  to  the  Greek  colonists,  the  lungs  of 
the  body  public.  This  Roman  institution  entered 
everywhere  into  the  life  of  the  conquered  people, 
not  by  force,  but  by  its  own  charm  and  its  innate 
suitableness  to  the  life  of  the  ancients.  Here  was 
the  scene  of  the  activity  of  whatever  elements 
of  political  life  were  left  to  the  vanquished;  here 
their  decurions  and  duumvirs,  their  ediles  and 
questors  and  priesthoods  met  for  business  or  for 
pleasure;  here  were  to  be  had  such  bits  of  gossip 
as  were  wafted  from  Rome  or  Antioch  or  Alexan- 
dria or  Carthage,  with  the  news  of  the  desert,  the 
movement  of  crops  and  harvests,  the  latest  lit- 
erature, and  the  last  imperial  scandal  or  aristo- 
cratic bankruptcy.  The  worst  emperors  were 
hardest  on  those  nearest  to  them,  and  the  prov- 
inces, as  a  rule,  enjoyed  peace  and  security  under 
the  head  of  the  state;  or  if  they  suffered,  it  was 
from  causes  not  always  under  his  control.  The 
imperial  authority  was  welcomed  by  the  old  prov- 
inces exhausted  by  republican  misrule.  The  wor- 
ship of  the  imperial  genius,  for  a  time  the  chief  of 


348  THE  "ROMAN  AFRICA''  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER. 

Roman  cults,  was  largely  a  creation  of  the  provin- 
cial instinct,  which  thereby  shared  the  general 
glory  of  the  state,  and  through  the  local  adminis- 
tration of  that  cult  kept  up  the  semblance  and 
the  souvenir  of  national  unity.  This  was  espe- 
cially the  case  with  such  cities  as  Timgad, 
founded  by  an  emperor,  endowed  by  others  with 
many  privileges  and  gifts,  protected  against  the 
encroachments  of  older  and  neighboring  cities. 
To  such  the  genius  of  Rome  and  Augustus  was 
sheltering  authority  itself,  nothing  less  than  the 
very  soul  of  peace  and  concord  and  security.  We 
may  well  believe  that  the  imperial  feasts  were 
celebrated  in  Timgad  with  rare  magnificence. 
What  a  vision  of  splendor  it  would  have  been  to 
stand  on  the  steps  of  its  forum,  some  emperor^s 
birthday,  and  watch  the  crowded  streets  and  inner 
porticoes;  to  see  the  multitudes  crushed  against 
the  marble  columns  and  the  bases  of  the  count- 
less statues;  the  magistrates  in  white-embroidered 
togas  amid  their  lictors  and  servants;  the  flower- 
crowned  priests  with  purple-trimmed  garments  sur- 
rounding their  gods  and  their  pledges  of  divine 
favor  and  authority;  the  bands  of  handsome 
young  men  bearing  aloft  on  tall  spears  the  gilt- 
bronze  busts  and  medallions  of  the  imperial 
family;    to  hear  the  shrill  notes  of  the  trumpets 


THE  ''ROMAN  AFRICA^'  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER.  349 

marshalling  the  detachments  of  legionaries  from 
Lambesa  and  the  swarthy  Numidian  cavalry  from 
the  deserts;  to  behold  all  that  joyous  procession, 
endless  in  life,  color,  and  motion,  move  on  to  the 
temple  of  the  dead  emperors,  there  to  take  part 
in  the  sacrifices  of  beeves  and  sheep,  the  burning 
of  incense,  the  heaping  of  flowers,  and  the  shouts 
and  salutations  of  adoration! 

Whence  came  the  funds  that  erected  these 
costly  edifices?  They  were  mostly  paid  for  by 
private  individuals.  In  the  old  Roman  world 
municipal  charges  were  bought  by  the  ambitious, 
instead  of  being  dearly  remunerated  by  the 
people.  In  a  prosperous  age,  like  that  of  the  An- 
tonines,  men  loved  the  places  of  trust,  and  fortu- 
nate merchants,  soldiers,  and  adventurers  paid 
gladly  the  summa  honoraria,  or  price  of  honors, 
into  the  public  treasury.  Their  wealth  redeemed 
their  base  or  unfortunate  birth,  and  enabled  them 
to  place  their  children  in  the  highest  rank, 
and  to  perpetuate,  by  theatres,  basilicas,  baths, 
fountains,  and  other  useful  public  monuments, 
their  memory.  This  is  one  of  the  causes  of  the 
multitude  of  Latin  inscriptions  erected  by  the 
donors  of  these  monuments,  or  by  the  grateful 
recipients,  and  which  are  happily  so  loquacious 
that    we    learn   from   their    lengthy   story   names, 


350  THE  ''ROMAN  AFRICA''  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER. 

dates,  factS;  and   institutions   that    otherwise    had 
perished. 

There  remain  yet  at  Timgad  extensive  ruins  of 
the  market,  the  capitol,  and  the  city  theatre — all 
of  marble.  The  market  was  evidently  one  of 
great  size  and  beauty,  decorated  with  statues  and 
inscriptions,  provided  with  fountains  and  por- 
ticoes— an  ideal  place  of  business,  and  capable 
of  relieving  the  forum  in  case  of  great  pressure  of 
people.  The  capitol  stood  on  a  little  elevation 
behind  the  market.  To  have  such  a  building  was 
the  ambition  of  every  city  of  the  Empire.  It  was 
the  living  symbol  of  unity  and  peace,  and  usually 
contained,  besides  the  statues  of  Jupiter,  Juno,  and 
Minerva,  certain  rare  treasures  or  heirlooms  of 
value.  It  was  at  once  temple,  treasury,  and 
political  centre,  and  sustained  at  the  ends  of  the 
world  the  religion,  the  pride,  and  the  courage  of 
the  holders  of  the  Roman  imperium  and  the  rep- 
resentatives of  the  Roman  majestas.  Its  columns, 
capitals,  friezes,  and  balustrades  at  Timgad  lie 
buried  in  the  sand  and  vegetation  of  centuries, 
but  they  are,  even  in  their  desolation,  eternal 
witness  to  the  solidity  of  the  Roman  State,  and 
the  power  of  arts  and  letters  to  overcome  the 
fiercest  savagery.  Of  the  theatre,  built  against 
the  side  of  the  hill,  there  remain  distinct  traces, 


THE  ''ROMAN  AFRICA"  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER.  351 

the  sub-basement  and  broken  columns  of  the 
facade,  with  some  lines  of  the  stage  and  the  seat- 
ing-space. The  theatre  was  surely  an  element 
of  Roman  culture,  even  on  the  edge  of  the  Sahara, 
but  in  practice  it  could  only  fire  to  fever  heat  the 
hot  blood  of  the  children  of  the  desert.  The 
mimes  and  pantomimes,  the  lascivious  dances 
and  tableaux  and  recitations  are  fortunately  gone; 
the  occasional  discovery  of  a  mutilated  text  of 
some  one  of  these  old  vaudeville  plays  is  enough 
to  excite  the  philologians  of  our  day.  But  the 
Christian  morality  of  those  African  fathers  who 
so  sternly  denounced  these  excesses  still  lives  and 
flourishes,  after  having  changed  the  face  of  whole 
worlds  and  purified  entire  civilizations.  Near  by, 
on  another  eminence,  stand  the  ruins  of  a  Byzan- 
tine fort,  lone  proof  of  the  brave  but  vain 
attempts  of  Eastern  Rome  during  the  sixth  and 
seventh  centuries  to  maintain  her  African  in- 
heritance against  Islam.  The  fanatic  Arab,  joined 
by  Jew,  Moor,  and  heretic,  was  too  strong  for 
the  feeble  but  dignified  Constantinople,  and  the 
fate  of  war  gave  back  to  the  Semitic  Mussulman 
those  deserts  and  hills  which  it  had  once  trans- 
ferred to  the  Aryan  Roman,  and  which  are  yet,  as 
they  always  were  and  will  be,  perhaps  forever,  a 
bone  of  contention  among  the  powers  of  this  world. 


352  THE  ''ROMAN  AFRICA''  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER. 

Perhaps  the  most  exquisite  pages  in  the  book  of 
M.  Boissier  are  those  on  the  Uterature  of  Roman 
Africa.  Here  he  is  at  home,  and  gives  the  usual 
evidence  of  his  fine,  intelHgent  criticism,  keen 
discrimination,  and  knowledge  of  the  history  of 
Latin  literature.  The  cities  of  Roman  Africa 
were  not  without  schools,  though  their  ruins  are 
never  found,  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  ancients 
held  school  under  the  porticoes  or  on  the  top- 
most stories  of  their  houses.  Still  we  know  that 
even  small  municipalities,  like  that  in  which  St. 
Augustine  was  born,  had  their  schools,  and  the 
African  inscriptions  reveal  the  love  of  study 
among  the  youth,  and  the  sacrifices  made  by  the 
parents  to  provide  them  with  an  education.  Car- 
thage was  of  course  the  chief  centre  of  studies, 
but  the  ambitious  young  men  of  Africa  were  rest- 
less until  they  had  reached  Rome.  They  seem 
to  have  been  especially  turbulent,  for  there  are 
laws  in  the  Digests  providing  for  their  expulsion 
from  the  city  when  found  incorrigible.  The  Latin 
literature  of  Africa  began  no  doubt  with  the  Julian 
colonists,  but  we  first  find  traces  of  it  in  the  life 
of  Septimius  Severus,  the  grandfather  of  the  em- 
peror, whose  literary  culture  Statins  extols  in  the 
Silvse  (iv.  5,  45): 

"Non  sermo  poenus,  non  habitus  tibi, 
Externa  non  mens:    Italus,  Italus." 


THE  ''ROMAN  AFRICA''  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER.  353 

Cornelius  Fronto  and  the  grammarian  Sulpicius 
Apollinaris  were  bright  Hghts  of  the  Uterary  circle 
under  the  Antonines,  but  they  were,  like  many 
others,  de- Africanized  by  long  residence  at  Rome. 
M.  Boissier  sees  in  Apuleius  the  best  type  of  the 
African  litterateur,  and  he  devotes  several  skilful 
pages  to  the  dissection  of  the  literary  remains  of 
this  author.  Apuleius  was  born  on  the  confines 
of  the  Roman  province,  probably  of  Numidian 
or  Moorish  descent.  From  his  parents,  who  were 
people  of  rank,  he  inherited  about  $80,000,  which 
he  spent  in  travel,  on  teachers,  friends,  and  per- 
haps in  the  usual  dissipations  of  classic  youth. 
He  picked  up  his  education  at  Carthage,  Athens, 
and  Rome,  in  which  latter  city  he  first  learned 
Latin,  a  language  that  he  never  spoke  well.  After 
following  for  some  time  the  calling  of  an  advo- 
cate at  Rome  he  returned  to  Carthage,  where  we 
find  him  a  favorite  lecturer  or  conf6rencier  in 
the  theatre,  treating  especially  of  philosophy,  that 
disciplina  regalis  tain  ad  bene  dicendum  quam  ad 
bene  vivendum  reperta.  Of  these  public  lectures 
there  is  extant  an  anthology  called  Florida,  con- 
taining extracts  on  history,  philosophy,  nature, 
and  practical  life.  On  one  of  his  excursions  from 
Carthage,  Apuleius  met  with  a  curious  adventure 
that  brought  him  before  the  courts  on  a  charge  of 


354  THE  "ROMAN AFRICA''  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER, 

witchcraft,    a    reputation    which    he    long    enjoyed 
among  the  Christians  of  Africa.     To  this  adventure 
we  owe  his  Apologia,  a  work  filled  with  garrulous 
self-complacency   and    a   lively   sense    of   his   own 
superiority.     The    chief    work    of    Apuleius    is    his 
'^Metamorphoses/Mn  eleven  books,  an  ethical  novel 
of  a  fantastic   and  satirical   character,    containing 
the    history    of    a  young    man  accidentally  trans- 
formed into  an  ass,  which  shape  he  can  only  lose 
by  the  eating  of  roses.     It  is  written  in  imitation 
of    a    work    of    that    other    brilliant    declaimer, 
Lucian.    Many  stories  are  inserted  in  the  course 
of  the  narration,  and  especially  the  myth  or  pop- 
ular  tale    of   Cupid    and    Psyche.     The    substance 
of  these    tales    is    undoubtedly    Greek,    or    Indo- 
European;     they    were    surely    not    collected    by 
Apuleius  among  the  mapalia  of  his  African  neigh- 
bors.   They    are    the    same    old    charming    tales 
found  in  every  land,   and  their  motives  are  ever 
the    same,    whether    treated    by    Petronius    and 
Apuleius,    or    by   Boccaccio   and  Lafontaine.    The 
former    are,    indeed,    strictly    speaking,    the    only 
novelists  of  the  classic  Latin  period,  and  the  dif- 
ference of  their  style  and  language  is  remarkable. 
The  first  is  an  elegant  and  refined  Latin,   whose 
perfect  speech  comes  naturally  to  him.     He  speaks 
the  ordinary  language  of  his  well-bred  neighbors, 


THE  "ROMAN  AFRICA"  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER,  355 

only  better  than  they  do.  His  power  of  keen  and 
accurate  observation,  his  knack  of  hnming  a  char- 
acter or  a  situation  in  a  few  sententious  lines,  his 
fine  insight  into  human  nature,  his  regard  for  his- 
torical truth  in  the  delineation  of  his  characters 
and  their  discourse,  his  refined  wit  and  genial 
humor,  prove  him  a  writer  of  the  first  rank,  and 
give  his  obscene  Banquet  of  Trimalchion  a  right 
to  life  that  its  vileness  would  otherwise  have  long 
since  deprived  it  of.  The  style  of  Apuleius,  on 
the  contrary,  is  wildly  fantastic  and  turgid,  and 
his  '^Metamorphoses''  have  been  well  characterized 
as  ''an  inexhaustible  torrent  of  verbiage,  a  bewil- 
dering medley  of  classical  and  popular  Latin,  the 
diction  of  all  periods  and  of  all  varieties  of  litera- 
ture, along  with  various  foreign  elements.''  But 
the  book  is  full  of  minute  and  effective  touches, 
and  its  constant  variation  lends  a  zest  to  the 
affected  style  and  the  florid  bombastic  phraseology. 
For  the  rest,  it  is  merely  the  accident  of  the  sub- 
ject-matter which  can  cause  us  to  compare  the 
fine  Roman  gentleman  of  Nero's  time  with  the 
African  rhetorician  of  the  end  of  the  second  cen- 
tury. The  Latin  was  the  mother  tongue  of  the 
Roman  novelist,  and  he  wrote  it  with  that  ex- 
quisite purity  which  is  acquired  only  by  daily  con- 
verse   with    the    best-bred    and    the    most-refined 


356  THE  ''ROMAN AFRICA"  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER. 

society  of  one's  day.  But,  in  the  time  of  Apuleius, 
Latin  literature  was  no  longer  the  expression  of 
the  life,  ideals,  fancies,  or  experiences  of  Roman 
society.  It  had  grown  artificial,  the  product  of 
the  schools  of  rhetoric,  a  thing  of  laws  and  rules 
and  system,  narrow  in  its  choice  of  subjects,  stilted 
and  cold  in  its  treatment  of  them,  without  color 
or  freshness  or  anything  of  that  charming  ease 
and  natural  simplicity  which  are  the  marks  of 
the  best  productions  of  the  golden  age  of  Latinity. 
Apuleius,  Tertullian,  St.  Cyprian,  Arnobius,  Lac- 
tantius,  all  African  writers  of  the  best  repute,  were 
all  rhetoricians.  Indeed,  from  the  middle  of  the 
second  century,  all  Latin  literature  is  both  rhetor- 
ical and  religious,  in  a  pagan  or  a  Christian  sense. 
But  while  in  Gaul  it  aims  at  a  certain  level  and 
takes  on  a  certain  average  perfection,  it  is  highly 
individualized  in  Africa,  where  the  violent  and 
passionate  Tertullian  contrasts  with  the  calm  and 
patient  St.  Cyprian,  and  the  verbose  and  difficult 
Apuleius  differs  so  widely  from  the  pure  Cicero- 
nian elegance  of  Lactantius. 

Africa  produced  many  poets,  but  not  one  who 
drank  deeply  of  the  Pierian  spring.  Among  the 
African  inscriptions  there  are  many  in  metre,  and 
some  of  them  are  quite  lengthy.  But  the  African 
poets  as  a  rule  seem  to  have  laughed  to  scorn  the 


THE  "ROMAN  AFRICA"  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER.  357 

obstacles   of   number,  quantity,   and    even   accent. 
Their  verses   are   halt,   stiff,    defective,   and   when 
they  are  fairly  grammatical,  are  hard  and  artificial, 
as   shown  by  the  examples  in  the   Latin  anthol- 
ogy.    Nevertheless  the  Christian  poet,  Dracontius, 
though  late  in  date,  deserves  more  favorable  men- 
tion.    It  was  his  misfortune  to  hve  under  the  Van- 
dal rule,  and  still  worse,  to  have  praised  in  verse 
the  Homan  Emperor.    For  this  he  was  cast  into 
prison  and  left  to  languish  in  chains  and  rags.    As 
a  solace  in  his  seclusion  he  composed  a  "  Carmen 
do  Deo,''  a  kind  of  hymn  on  the  mercy  of  God,  in 
which    there    are    touching    passages    and    several 
fine    descriptions    of   natural    scenes   and    sounds. 
M.  Boissier    does    not  mention  the  metrical  ''In- 
structions"    and     the     Carmen    Avologeticum     of 
Commodianus,    perhaps   because   he   does   not   be- 
lieve him  to  be  an  African,  as  do  many  patrolo- 
gists,  because  of  his  Latinity  and  his  use  of  African 
writers.    These  poems,  the   earhest  Christian  met- 
rical compositions  in  Latin,  are  very  rude  indeed, 
and  the  verse,  based  sometimes  on  quantity  and 
sometimes  on  accent,  has  only  the  appearance  of 
the    hexameter.     But    the    poems    are    filled    with 
Christian  zeal,  in  spite  of  some  unorthodox  views, 
and  are  otherwise  worthy  of  note  because  of  the 
marked    tendency   to    alliteration,    assonance,    and 


358  THE  "ROMAN  AFRICA"  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER. 

vhynie  which  they  betray.  Of  TertuUian  and 
St.  Cyprian  M.  Boissier  says  nothing,  doubtless 
because  the  plan  of  his  work  forbade  an  exhaust- 
ive treatise  on  African  writers,  or  rather,  per- 
haps, because  they  are  didactic  writers,  and  he 
aims  merely  at  discussing  the  African  writers  of 
Latin  literature  in  its  strictest  sense. 

Few  fields  of  archaeological  study  have  attracted 
more  workers,  or  furnished  a  greater  harvest  than 
Roman  Africa.  The  brilliant  pages  of  M.  Boissier 
are  only  the  summing  up  of  long  years  of  patient 
toil,  borne  by  French,  German,  and  Italian  scholars. 
Foremost  in  this  work  are  the  editors  of  the  eighth 
volume  of  the  Corpus  Inscriptionum  Latinarum 
(Berhn,  1881,  in  folio),  which,  with  its  supplement 
(ib.  1891),  contains  over  twenty  thousand  inscrip- 
tions that  throw  the  clearest  light  on  the  details 
of  law,  administration,  religion,  society,  and  fam- 
ily in  northern  Africa  during  a  period  of  several 
hundred  years.  They  need  to  be  studied  by  men 
well  versed  in  Roman  history,  Latin  literature, 
and  archaeology,  and  trained  according  to  the 
severe  historical  discipline  of  the  best  modern 
schools.  Interpreted  by  such  men,  the  inscrip- 
tions reveal  a  multitude  of  facts,  and  open  up 
whole  sections  of  history  formerly  unknown  or 
misunderstood.    In  this  line  Monmisen,  Willmanns, 


THE  "  ROMAN  AFRICA''  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER.  359 

Renier,  Cagnat,  Delattre,  and  others  have  labored 
with  much  success,  and  laid  the  scientific  foun- 
dations for  all  future  progress.  Such  researches 
have  made  possible  the  great  work  of  Tissot, 
La  Geographie  comparee  de  la  province  romaine 
d'Afrique  (Paris,  1884-1888,  2  vols,  in  4°),  to 
which  M.  Boissier  owes  the  most  of  his  topographi- 
cal descriptions.  Another  monumental  work  con- 
structed on  the  principles  of  modern  historical 
research  is  the  Histoire  de  Vart  dans  Vantiquite 
of  MM.  Perrot  and  Chipiez,  which  resumes  in  a 
scientific  way  the  latest  and  most  reliable  dis- 
coveries of  an  artistic  nature,  within  and  without 
the  boundaries  of  the  Empire.  In  the  exhaustive 
studies  on  UArmee  Romaine  d^Afrique  (Paris, 
1892,  3  vols.),  M.  Rene  Cagnat  has  given  us  the 
best  monograph  on  the  military  administration 
of  that  province,  and  treated  exhaustively  all  the 
questions  to  which  the  huge  mass  of  military  in- 
scriptions gives  rise.  The  African  histories  of 
Boissier  and  Mercier,  and  the  scholarly  works  of 
Solomon  Reinach,  Stephen  Gsell,  Carton,  Rouvier, 
Milvoy,  Schmidt,  Babelon,  Schirmer,  and  many 
others,  have  also  contributed  much  to  the  elucida- 
tion of  unsettled  problems,  while  the  local  archaeo- 
logical societies  of  Constantine  and  Oran,  with 
the    various   Annuaires,    BulletinSy    Archives,    Rap- 


360   THE  ''ROMAN  AFRICA"  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER. 

ports,  etc.,  of  private  and  public  associations  fo 
archaeological  purposes,  have  given  shelter  to  count- 
less details  that  might  easily  have  been  lost  to 
the  synthetic  gatherer  when  he  appeared.  Since 
nearly  all  the  site  of  ancient  Carthage  is  now 
the  property  of  the  Catholic  Church,  it  was  but 
meet  that  one  of  her  priests,  Pere  Delattre,  should 
take  an  active  part  in  the  restoration  of  the  ancient 
life  of  that  city  and  the  territory  where  once  she 
reigned  as  mistress.  Though  this  missionary's 
work  lies  chiefly  along  the  lines  of  the  Christian 
and  ecclesiastical  archaeology  of  Africa,  and  of 
Carthage  especially,  he  is  still  a  very  useful  and 
indefatigable  helper  in  the  department  of  Roman 
and  Punic  antiquities.  In  the  latter,  indeed,  he 
is  a  pioneer,  for  the  latest  discoveries  and  their 
illustration  are  due  to  him. 

M.  Boissier's  brilliant  popularization  of  these 
labors  and  studies,  of  which  I  have  tried  to  give 
the  general  outlines  and  the  spirit,  conveys  no 
adequate  notion  of  the  sum  of  attainments  which 
must  be  possessed  by  the  actual  laborers  and 
gatherers  in  these  fields.  To  a  more  than  ordinary 
knowledge  of  the  natural  sciences,  and  to  an  ex- 
cellent training  in  physical  and  political  geog- 
raphy, one  must  join  an  accurate  and  exhaustive 
knowledge  of  the  local  history  of  the  territory  in 


THE  "ROMAN AFRICA"  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER.  361 

which  he  is  working — a  knowledge  which  he  must 
often  put  together  himself,  since  its  only  materials 
are  precisely  the  stones,  mounds,  depressions,  and 
general  physical  wreckage  on  which  he  has  fallen. 
He  must  have  a  large  endowment  of  the  imagina- 
tive faculty — a  rare  and  delicate  quality  of  that 
gift,  which  may  be  used  for  good  or  evil  ends,  but 
without  some  share  of  which  no  historian  ought 
to  undertake  the  mental  reconstruction  of  a  van- 
ished society.  To  this  he  must  add  a  hardy  bodily 
constitution,  much  nervous  energy,  skill  in  dealing 
with  the  natives,  and  power  to  sustain  privation, 
disappointment,  and  failure.  Finally,  he  needs  to 
be  an  idealist  by  temperament,  since  the  worldly 
reward  of  such  labors  is  not  great  in  an  age  when 
the  Punic  merchant-soul  seems  to  have  awakened 
to  new  life,  not  on  the  rocky  promontories  of 
Africa,  but  on  all  the  seas  and  in  all  the  ports  of 
a  world  which  has  more  than  doubled  since  Car- 
thage was  its  carrier  and  its  broker. 

Such  men  are  truly  martjo-s  of  science,  and 
while  it  is  to  the  honor  of  France  that  she  produces 
them  in  great  numbers,  it  is  also  a  proof  that  she 
is  still  an  idealist  nation,  and  that  she  still  prizes 
above  riches  and  conquests  the  general  ideals  of 
an  elevated  humanity — glory,  learning,  art,  science, 
and  the  unceasing  perfection  of  the  mind  of  man, 


362  THE  ''ROMAN AFRICA"  OF  GASTON  BOISSIER. 

that  admirable  mirror  in  which  he  may  see  the 
myriad-sided  present,  the  endless  vistas  of  the 
past,  and  from  the  consciousness  of  the  one  and 
the  accurate  story  of  the  other,  forecast  the  fate 
of  his  kind  in  the  similar  situations  of  the 
future. 


THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS. 

I. 

John  Baptist  De  Rossi  was  bom  at  Rome,  Feb- 
ruary 23,  1822,  of  parents  distinguished  for  sta- 
tion and  piety.*  As  a  child  he  loved  to  read  the 
lives  of  the  saints,  especially  of  the  earlier  ones, 
and  satisfied  his  youthful  curiosity  by  long  ex- 
cursions through  an  Italian  leggendario,  which 
happened  to  contain,  what  is  rare  in  works  of  pure 
piety,  some  account  of  the  authorities  or  original 
sources  whence  the  sketches  of  the  saints  were 
drawn.  This  may  have  been  the  original  impulse 
that  turned  his  mind  to  critico-historical  inves- 
tigations which  became  at  a  very  early  period 
an    absorbing   passion.    Speaking   in   later   life    of 

^  The  biographical  items  for  this  sketch  of  the  pubhc  career 
of  De  Rossi  are  drawn  from  the  Albums  or  proceedings  of 
the  festivities  on  the  occasions  respectively  of  his  sixtieth 
and  seventieth  birthdays  (1882,  1892)  and  from  the  brochure 
Giovanni  Battista  de  Rossi,  Fondatore  della  Scienza  di  Archeo- 
logia  Sacra:  Cenni  Biografki,  per  P.  M.  Baumgarten  (Rome, 
1892). 


364        THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS. 

his  early  days,  he  was  wont  to  assert  that  archae- 
ology was  surely  his  vocation,  since  he  could 
not  remember  that  any  attraction  for  other 
sciences  ever  asserted  itself  in  him:  His  studies 
were  made,  like  those  of  the  other  Roman 
youths,  at  the  Collegio  Romano  and  the  Sapienza 
or  Pontifical  University.  In  the  former  he  dis- 
tinguished himself  by  aptitude  in  the  study  of 
the  classics,  never  so  foreign  to  the  Italian  as  to 
the  northern  mind,  and  profited  no  little  by  the 
epigraphic  instruction  of  the  classic  archaeologists 
Secchi  and  Bonvicini.  By  a  subtle  natural  in- 
stinct he  was  drawn  to  the  study  of  epigraphy, 
for  which  the  materials  stared  at  him  from  every 
corner  of  the  old  papal  stronghold,  and  we  may 
date  from  his  early  college  days  the  growth  of  that 
marvellous  insight  into  the  spirit  and  the  rules 
which  governed  the  ancient  Romans  in  the  com- 
position and  erection  of  those  multitudinous  in- 
scriptions whose  marble  and  bronze  relics  are  for- 
ever coming  to  light  beneath  the  pick  of  the  ex- 
cavator. At  the  Sapienza  he  followed  the  study 
of  law,  more  for  the  sake  of  the  position  it  fur- 
nished than  with  any  thought  of  living  by  it,  and 
after  an  exceptionally  brilliant  course,  in  which 
he  was  always  the  leader  of  his  class,  was  de- 
clared, in  1843,  doctor  utriusque  juris  ad  honorem. 


THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS.        365 

A  mere  chance  threw  him  in  the  way  of  the 
famous  Mai,  and  by  his  influence  the  young  De 
Rossi  was  made  Scriptor  or  official  copyist  to  the 
administration  of  the  Vatican  Archives,  an  office 
which  he  held  until  his  death  and  which  enabled 
him  to  acquire  a  valuable  acquaintance  with  a 
multitude  of  archaeological  treasures  hidden  away 
most  jealously  from  less  fortunate  men.  In  the 
long  years  that  he  spent  transcribing,  collating, 
and  disposing  the  rare  parchments  of  that  unique 
collection,  his  extraordinary  memory  grasped 
countless  indications  that  aided  him  afterwards 
in  his  peculiar  labors  among  the  rudera  of  Chris- 
tian antiquity.  Surely  it  was  the  guiding  hand 
of  Providence  that  set  the  ambitious  and  ardent 
youth,  not  on  the  tedious  and  dangerous  road 
of  the  diplomatic  career,  but  on  the  sequestered 
paths  that  finally  led  out  among  the  solitudes  of 
the  Appian  Way  and  along  the  deserted  banks 
of  Tiber,  where  her  yellow  waves  gnaw  their  tor- 
tuous road  to  the  sea.  And  surely,  again,  it  was 
a  disposition  of  Providence  that  kept  him  a  life- 
time at  the  official  and  professional  study  of  the 
written  records  of  the  past,  and  absolutely 
forced  upon  him  the  conviction  that  the  written 
documents  were  to  be  used  pari  passu  with  the 
material     monuments,     and     that     the     facts     of 


366       THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS. 

Christian  antiquity  could  never  be  properly  illu- 
minated until  the  combined  light  of  both  were  cast 
upon  them. 

It  would  seem  that  in  the  family  of  De  Rossi 
the  Catacombs  were  a  frequent  subject  of  con- 
versation, and  awakened,  almost  from  infancy, 
an  unquenchable  curiosity  in  the  mind  of  John 
Baptist.  We  hear  that  his  father  eagerly  sought 
the  rare  work  of  Antonio  Bosio,  Roma  Botterranea, 
as  a  premium  for  his  gifted  son,  and  that  the 
favorite  excursion  of  De  Rossi  and  his  brother 
Michele,  when  scarcely  out  of  their  teens,  was  out 
on  the  lonely  wastes  of  the  Campagna,  prying 
around  among  the  entrances  to  the  deserted  ceme- 
teries, whither  the  ancient  Christians  were  tracked 
like  rabbits,  or  gazing  down  the  lucernaria  or  loop- 
holes that  once  let  in  air  and  light  to  this  subter- 
raneous world,  and  yet  serve  as  buoys  to  mark 
the  location  of  the  main  pathways  across  the 
ocean  of  ruins  that  lie  beneath.  What  a  fascina- 
tion there  is  in  this  Roman  soil!  While  the 
grassy  mounds  and  sunken  ditches  that  mark  the 
humble  refuges  of  the  early  Christian  flock  were 
inflaming  the  piety  of  the  youthful  De  Rossi,  the 
classical  memories  of  Thrasea  Psetus  and  Helvi- 
dius  Priscus,  of  Arnold  da  Brescia  and  Cola  di 
Rienzi  were  firing  other  Roman  youths  of  the  same 


THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS.       367 

age.  While  the  genius  of  De  Rossi  was  planning 
the  discovery  of  the  little  Christian  communities, 
those  protoplasms  around  which  the  mediaeval 
Christendom  was  one  day  compacted,  hundreds 
of  his  companions  were  conspiring  for  the  violent 
restoration  of  that  old  republic  of  blood,  iron,  and 
robbery  over  whose  recent  grave  the  first  Chris- 
tians began  their  memorable  propaganda.  In  this 
fated  city  there  goes  on  for  evermore  a  warfare  of 
the  spirit  and  the  flesh,  and  the  passionate  outcry 
and  reaction  of  the  conquered  world  break 
violently  in  upon  the  alleluias  and  litanies  of  the 
Church,  even  as  the  hoarse  shouts  of  the  pagan 
rabble  sullied  the  holy  purity  of  the  Christian  ser- 
vice in  the  bowels  of  the  Campagna. 

It  was  not  without  some  difficulty  that  De 
Rossi  obtained  his  father's  consent  to  the  indul- 
gence of  these  antiquarian  tastes,  which  seemed 
to  promise  very  poor  results,  either  of  fame  or 
advancement.  In  the  end,  however,  he  became 
the  disciple  of  the  Padre  Marchi,  a  well-known 
Jesuit  numismatist,  whose  discovery  of  the  tomb 
of  SS.  Protus  and  Hyacinthus  in  the  catacomb 
of  St.  Agnes,  on  the  Nomentan  Way,  entitles  him 
to  an  eminent  place  in  the  annals  of  Christian  archae- 
ology. Still  greater  gratitude  is  owing  him  for 
the   formation   of  the   young   De   Rossi,   long   his 


368      THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS. 

inseparable  companion  and  colaborer  in  those 
sacred  mines  whose  galleries  are  hallowed  by  the 
blood  of  martyrs  innumerable  and  the  pious  foot- 
falls of  pilgrims  still  more  innumerable,  and 
whose  walls  are  impregnated  with  the  holy  aspira- 
tions of  three  great  epochs  of  human  culture. 
Padre  Marchi  was  the  last  of  the  old  Une  of  Chris- 
tian archaeologists  which  began  at  the  end  of  the 
sixteenth  century  with  Macarius,  Ciacconio,  De 
Winghe,  and  Bosio;  was  continued  in  the  seven- 
teenth in  the  persons  of  Fabretti,  Boldetti,  Buona- 
rotti,  Lupi,  Marangoni,  and  Bottari,  and  in  the 
early  decades  of  this  century  was  represented  in 
France  by  De  Caumont,  Didron,  Greppo,  Raoul- 
Eochette,  Martin,  and  Cahier;  in  Germany  by 
Augusti,  Binterim,  and  Miinter;  in  Italy  by  Sarti 
and  Settele.  He  was  the  official  guardian,  or  cus- 
tode,  of  the  catacombs,  and,  as  such,  inherited 
much  practical  knowledge  and  traditional  lore  con- 
cerning them.  He  had  himself  begun  a  great  work 
on  the  monuments  of  early  Christian  art,  of  which 
only  one  volume  was  ever  published.  Political 
vicissitudes  and  his  own  discovery  of  the  quali- 
ties of  De  Rossi  made  him  abandon  the  work  to 
his  young  disciple,  who  had  quickly  caught  the 
enthusiasm  of  the  old  Jesuit,  and  brought  to  the 
holy  cause  youth,  talent,  learning,  industry,  voca- 


THE  COLUMBUS  OF   THE  CATACOMBS,       369 

tion,    and    the    divine    intuitions    of   genius.    The 
world-famous  discoveries  of  De  Rossi  in  the  Cata- 
combs of  St.   CaUixtus— those  subtle,   almost  pro- 
phetic calculations  by  which  he  laid  open  a  vast 
and  intricate  city  beneath  the  vineyards  and  the 
garden    patches    of   the    Roman   suburbs— are    too 
well    known    to    need    rehearsal    here.     Suffice    it 
to  say  that  early  in  the  fifties  men  recognized  a 
new  star  in  the  firmament  of  learning,   and  that 
public  attention  was  thenceforth  fastened  on  the 
young   archaeologist   as   one    who   had   struck   out 
a  new  path,  and  would  soon  modify  the  methods 
and   conclusions   of  all   past   workers  in  Christian 
archeology.     He  interested   Pius  IX.  in  his  work, 
and  obtained  the  creation  of  a  special  commission 
for  the  excavations,  in  which  he  was  ever  the  guid- 
ing spirit  and  counsel.     All  his  great  publications 
were  begun  or  planned  about  this  time,  and  the 
rest   of   his   life   devoted   to   the   elevation   of   his 
favorite  study  to  the   recognized  rank  of  a  true 
science— one  of  the  few  which  the  Catholic  Church 
can  say  that  she  has  completely  won  over  to  her 
side. 

No  one  was  better  known  in  the  great  archives 
and  libraries  of  Europe  than  De  Rossi.  Since 
1853  he  visited  frequently  the  principal  collections 


370       THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS. 

of  mediseval  manuscripts  in  Italy,  France,  Ger- 
many, Switzerland,  and  England.  The  archivists 
of  Berne,  Paris,  Venice,  Milan,  and  many  other 
cities  welcomed  his  visits  and  threw  open  their 
treasures  to  the  one  man  in  Europe  who  could 
compare  them  intelligently  with  those  of  the  Vat- 
ican and  make  the  old  parchments  give  up  the 
mysteries  of  the  past.  So  high  and  unique  was 
his  reputation  that  foreign  governments  entrusted 
most  precious  manuscripts  to  their  representatives 
at  Rome  for  his  use,  and  deemed  themselves 
honored  when  he  had  illustrated  their  contents 
or  their  history.  As  his  fame  grew,  learned 
bodies  in  Europe  and  America  showered  honorific 
titles  and  memberships  on  him;  orders  and  crosses 
and  medals  were  offered  for  his  acceptance;  gov- 
ernments, universities,  and  national  academies  vied 
with  the  papacy  to  do  honor  to  the  founder  of 
the  new  science  of  Christian  Archaeology.  His 
name  became  a  household  word  throughout  Chris- 
tendom as  that  of  the  famous  wizard  who  had 
conjured  up  before  our  eyes  long-buried  cities, 
and  made  the  men  and  women  of  ancient  days 
move  as  in  a  mighty  kinetoscope.  Among  all 
his  distinctions  the  proudest  was  that  of  Prefect, 
or  Curator  of  the  Christian  Museum  attached  to 


THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS.        371 

the  Vatican  Library — a  life  office  created  espe- 
cially for  him  by  Leo  XIIL,  who  was  no  less  his 
friend  and  admirer  than  Pius  IX.  The  latter 
had  offered  to  put  him  at  the  head  of  the  Archives 
after  the  unfortunate  incident  of  Theiner,  but  De 
Rossi,  with  characteristic  modesty  and  prudence, 
begged  the  Pope  to  permit  him  to  decUne. 

In  1882  his  sixtieth  birthday  was  celebrated 
with  extraordinary  enthusiasm,  shared  equally  by 
kings  and  republics,  by  Catholics  and  non-Catholics. 
It  recalled  those  splendid  coronation  scenes  of 
the  Renaissance,  when  the  Italian  world  burst 
out  in  spontaneous  apotheosis  of  the  poet  who 
best  voiced  the  multitudinous  aspirations  of  its 
great  heart.  Only,  instead  of  on  the  Capitol,  men 
were  gathered  at  the  Lateran;  instead  of  a  crown 
of  laurel,  they  offered  conviction  and  gratitude; 
instead  of  the  perishable  allurements  of  verse  and 
song,  they  crowned  the  hard-won  victories  of  a 
discoverer  who  had  gone  out  upon  a  dark  and  un- 
known sea,  with  only  the  compass  of  genius,  and 
given  back  to  the  Christian  world  its  earliest  prov- 
inces that  the  great  cleft  of  the  middle  times  had 
forced  into  a  well-nigh  mythical  obscurity.  A 
similar  scene  was  repeated  on  the  occasion  of  his 
seventieth  birthday,  in  April,  1892,  when  his  bust 
was    unveiled  in  the  little  fourth-century  basilica 


372        THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS. 

of  SS.  Sixtus  and  Caecilia/  that  rises  over  the  Cat- 
acomb of  St.  CaUixtus,  amid  the  plaudits  and  con- 
gratulations of  a  large  assembly,  among  which 
were  many  representatives  of  the  governments 
and  universities  of  Europe  and  of  academic  bodies 
and  learned  societies  from  both  sides  of  the  ocean. 
The  learning  of  two  hemispheres  bowed  down 
before  the  humble  and  honest  Christian  investi- 
gator, and  it  sends  a  thrill  of  enthusiasm  through 
the  coldest  veins  to  think  that  human  science  was 
once  more  doing  homage  to  a  model  of  Christian 
faith  on  the  blood-stained  floor  of  St.  Callixtus, 
and  that  our  proud  century  looked  not  unsym- 
pathetically  on  this  new  curving  of  the  altitudes 
of  the  human  mind  beneath  the  sweet  servage 
of   Christ. 

In  modest  and  touching  language  the  aged  archae- 
ologist reviewed  his  work  in  the  catacombs,  and 
thanked    the    eminent    scholars    who    had    come 

^  The  bust,  of  white  Serravezza  marble,  is  the  work  of  Lu- 
chetti,  and  is  ornamented  with  the  following  inscription: 

lOHANNI  .  BAPTISTAE  •  DE   .  ROSSI 

QVO    •    DVCE    •    CHRISTIANA    •    VETVSTAS 

IN    •    NOVVM    •    DECVS    •    EFFLORVIT 

PONTIFICVM    •    HEROVMQVE    •    PRIMAEVAE    •    ECCLESIAE 

ILLVXERE     •    TROPHAEA 

NATALI    •    EIVS    •    SEPTVAGESIMO 

CVLTORES    •    MARTYRVM    •    ET    •    SACRAE    •    ANTIQVITATIS 

MAGISTRO    •    OPTIMO    •    P    •    A    •    MDCCCXCII 


THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS.        373 

from  afar  to  greet  him,  and  to  console  his  declining 
years  with  approval  and  acceptance  of  his  labors. 
There  is  an  echo  of  the  Nunc  Dimittis  in  the  proud 
joy  with  wliich  he  referred  to  his  numerous 
progeny  of  disciples  already  equipped  for  work, 
and  ready  to  occupy  the  field  when  the  maestro 
laid  down  his  arms.  Shortly  afterwards  he  was 
stricken  with  paralysis,  from  which  his  physical 
frame  never  recovered,  though  his  intellect  re- 
mained undimmed  to  the  last.  He  had  reached 
a  green  old  age,  and  enjoyed  all  the  honors  that 
could  fall  to  a  scholar's  lot.  He  had  shed  lustre 
upon  the  Church  of  Rome,  both  as  head  of  the 
Christian  body  and  as  a  local  community,  and 
caused  the  name  of  Johannes  Baptista  De  Rossi 
Romanus  to  be  pronounced  everywhere  with  ven- 
eration and  respect.  The  world  was  better  for 
his  labors,  and  the  spirit  of  peace  and  conciliation 
had  made  much  progress  by  reason  of  his  com- 
manding genius  and  all-embracing  charity.  As 
his  strength  failed,  it  was  hoped  that  the  country 
air  would  revive  him,  and  Castel  Gondolfo,  the 
summer  residence  of  the  popes,  was  placed  at  his 
disposal  by  order  of  Leo  XIII.  But  he  never 
rallied,  and  on  September  20th  he  peacefully 
passed  away.  His  remains  were  brought  back 
to  Rome  and  temporarily  buried   at  San  Lorenzo: 


374       THE  COLUMBUS  OF   THE  CATACOMBS. 

But  it  is  said  that  a  nobler  resting-place  is  in 
store,  and  that  he  will  be  buried  in  the  papal  crypt 
at  St.  Callixtus,  like  a  hero  on  the  field  of  battle. 
Charlemagne  was  not  more  properly  entombed 
beneath  the  dome  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  nor  Chateau- 
briand on  the  wave-beaten  rock  of  St.  Malo,  than 
De  Rossi  will  be  in  the  heart  of  the  great  Chris- 
tian cemetery  which  his  genius  discovered  and 
rebuilt.  He  did  many  difficult  things  in  his  life, 
but  nothing  to  compare  with  the  restoration  of 
The  Cemetery  par  excellence,  the  centre  at  once 
of  early  Christian  life  at  Rome,  the  nucleus  of  the 
landed  wealth  of  the  Roman  Church,  and  the 
mausoleum  for  a  hundred  years  of  her  most  cele- 
brated pontiffs.  He  died  working,  dictating,  and 
commenting,  hke  Irish  Columba  and  English  Bede, 
and  his  eyes  closed  upon  the  pageant  of  the  church 
militant  only  to  open  on  that  of  the  church  trium- 
phant, whose  vicissitudes  and  memories  he  had 
so  accurately  and  piously  illustrated  upon  earth. 

"  Nee  puer  Iliaea  quisquam  de  gente  Latinos 
In  tantum  spe  toilet  avos ;  nee  Romula  quondam 
XJllo  SB  tantum  tellus  jactabit  alumno." 

II. 

De  Rossi  was  one  of  those  rare  men  in  whom 
the  entire  knowledge  of  the  civilization  of  the  past 


THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS.       375 

ages  seems  to  be  mirrored,  an  encyclopaedist  or 
polyhistor,  to  whom  the  whole  range  of  human 
thought  and  endeavor  along  the  lines  of  intellect- 
ual culture  was  thoroughly  familiar.  Before  the 
Renaissance  such  men  were  rarer  still,  for,  though 
the  mediaeval  world  produced  men  of  great  emi- 
nence, whose  imprint  on  human  society  will  never 
fade,  it  was  still  an  age  of  action  and  creation. 
It  had  little  leisure  or  capacity  for  the  calm  sur- 
vey of  the  classic  past  and  its  own  origins,  and 
perhaps  less  taste  for  cultures  that  were  purely 
pagan,  or  at  least  mixed.  There  was  still  a 
touch  of  the  rugged  Tertullian  in  the  mediaeval 
Christian.  Therefore  we  cannot  class  the  great 
archaeologist  with  St.  Thomas  or  St.  Bonaventm-e 
or  Dante.  His  place  is  with  men  like  Peiresc, 
Sirmond,  Maffei,  Mabillon,  Montfaucon,  and  their 
congeners.  He  is  not  an  artist  like  those  who 
built  the  cathedrals  of  Cologne  or  Strasburg,  but, 
like  Cellini  and  Francia,  a  worker  in  detail,  yet 
with  high  ideals,  and  a  definite  purpose  into  which 
every  act  of  his  life  fits  with  perfect  neatness  and 
propriety.  His  writings  cover  the  entire  period 
of  Graeco-Roman  civilization,  and  he  was  no  less 
familiar  with  its  pagan  than  with  its  Christian 
side.  The  Rome  of  Augustus  and  the  Rome  of 
Damasus    and    Leo   were    equally   well   known  to 


376       THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS. 

him.  During  more  than  fifty  years  he  gave  to 
the  pubhc  a  multitude  of  writings,  great  and  small, 
in  which  he  shed  new  light  on  Christian  antiquities, 
on  the  inscriptions  of  the  ancients,  both  Greek 
and  Latin,  both  heathen  and  Christian;  on  the 
laws,  manners,  and  habits  of  Rome;  on  manu- 
scripts and  ancient  handwriting;  on  mediaeval  art 
and  bibliography.  He  carried  on  at  the  same 
time  a  vast  system  of  excavations,  organized  the 
Christian  Museum  of  the  Lateran,  pushed  forward 
the  cataloguing  of  the  Vatican  archives,  and  kept 
a  school  after  the  manner  of  the  old  philosophers. 
Indeed,  merely  to  describe  intelligently  the  out- 
lines of  his  life  work  is  no  easy  task,  and  might 
well  occupy  the  space  of  one  or  more  large 
volumes.  Still  by  classifying  the  numerous  works 
of  his  pen  we  may  hope  to  present  something 
like  a  fair  general  view  of  his  enormous  literary 
activity. 

De  Rossi  was  pre-eminently  an  epigraphist. 
The  science  of  inscriptions  was  his  first  love;  out 
of  his  devotion  to  the  monumenta  literata  sprang 
all  his  other  researches,  and  to  them  were  finally 
referred  his  most  striking  conquests  in  the  do- 
main of  antiquity.  Inscriptions  engraved,  painted, 
scratched,  or  stamped;  pagan  and  Christian,  public- 
historical;  domestic,  and  artistic;   on  stone,  bronz;^ 


THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS,       377 

ivory,  wood,  or  copper;  on  buildings,  coins,  or 
antiquarian  objects;  whether  found  on  the  original 
materials,  patiently  gathered  from  the  printed 
works  of  the  ancients,  or  dug  out  of  old  mediaeval 
collections,  he  was  first  in  every  department,  and 
labored  in  all  with  equal  intelligence,  devotion, 
and  success.  Epigraphy,  which  was  formerly  but 
an  ancillary  science  to  history,  and  an  armory  of 
apologetic  weapons  to  the  Christian,  became  in 
his  hands  an  independent  study,  with  proper  and 
peculiar  methods,  principles,  and  conclusions  of 
value  for  themselves. 

The  passion  of  inscriptions  has  been  always 
strong  among  powerful  and  cultured  peoples,  as 
the  modern  discoveries  in  Assyria,  Egypt,  Persia, 
and  India  abundantly  testify.  Inscriptions  were 
the  heralds  of  Hellenism  in  its  day  of  pride,  as 
they  are  to-day  the  witnesses  of  the  range  of  its 
influence.  But  never  were  they  more  numerous 
than  in  the  palmy  days  of  imperial  Rome,  when 
they  stared  at  the  citizen  from  the  arches  and  the 
statues  of  the  fora,  and  looked  down  on  him  from 
a  hundred  basilicas  and  temples  in  every  city  of 
the  mighty  East- West  world.  The  walls,  the 
roads,  the  aqueducts;  the  boundaries  of  domains, 
public  and  private;  the  seats  in  the  theatres,  the 
weights   and   measures,   the   weapons   and   curios; 


378      THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS. 

the  rough  marble  in  blocks  and  the  tiles  on  the 
roofs — every  material  object  of  public  or  private 
life  afforded  a  space,  great  or  small,  to  the  insatia- 
ble ''man  of  letters."  Public  acts,  like  treaties, 
alliances,  plebiscita,  law  edicts,  senatus-consulta, 
and  imperial  constitutions,  were  eternalized  in 
bronze,  while  private  transactions  were  preserved 
with  no  less  care  on  durable  material,  as  the 
banker^s  accounts,  the  rent  rolls,  the  tavern  bills, 
and  political  manifestos  of  Pompeii  show  us. 
Sometimes  whole  annals  or  biographies  were  written 
out  on  stone,  as  we  see  by  the  Parian  Marmor- 
chronik  and  the  famous  Monumentum  Ancyranum. 
Only  one  familiar  with  the  texts  and  details  of 
early  imperial  history  can  imagine  what  a  multi- 
tudinous mass  of  inscriptions  must  have  existed 
intact  before  the  downfall  of  the  ancient  culture. 
But  they  perished  miserably  at  the  hands  of  those 
two  great  enemies  of  human  achievements,  cruel 
man  and  relentless  time.  One  ground  them  into 
the  earth,  and  the  other  swept  away  all  reminis- 
cences of  their  ancient  estate,  so  that  the  same 
silent  desolation  spread  over  those  relics  of  Roman 
greatness  which  Rome  herself  had  so  often  brought 
upon  the  greatness  of  older  civilizations  than  her 
own.  Still  they  did  not  perish  unheeded.  For 
various   reasons   the    ancients,    especially    the    re- 


THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS.       379 

fined  litterati  of  Alexandria,  made  collections  of 
inscriptions,  and  such  useful  and  pious  labors 
were  carried  on  by  Latin  scholars,  both  pagan 
and  Christian.  There  are  the  clearest  evidences 
that  such  mixed  Corpora  of  epigraphical  material 
existed  in  the  West  in  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries, 
and  that  they  were  favorite  books  for  the  com- 
pilers of  epigrams  and  the  writers  of  funeral, 
sacred,  or  honorary  inscriptions.  They  contained 
careful  transcriptions  of  many  old  epigraphs  in 
elegiac,  lyric,  or  epic  metre.  Often  the  original 
lettering  was  accurately  reproduced,  and  the  pre- 
cious chronological  notes  or  indices  of  the  time 
when  the  original  was  executed  were  preserved. 
But  even  this  bridge  was  in  time  broken  down,  and 
those  priceless  early  collections  are  represented 
to  us  now  by  manuscripts  of  the  Carolingian 
epoch,  chiefly  pilgrim  books  or  itineraries  of  wan- 
dering monks  and  travellers,  who  jotted  down 
among  other  miscellanea  out  of  the  older  Corpora, 
then  worn,  decayed,  or  neglected,  such  ancient 
Latin  inscriptions  as  were  likely  to  be  of  use  or 
interest  in  their  own  little  circles  beyond  the  Alps. 
The  merest  chance  has  preserved  to  us  a  very 
few  specimens  of  this  literary  work  in  manuscripts 
that  belonged  originally  to  Einsiedeln,  Lorsch, 
Milan,    Klosterneuburg,    Gottweich,    Verdun,    etc. 


380       THE  COLUMBUS  OF   THE  CATACOMBS. 

Their  text  is  now  corrupt;  there  are  great  breaks 
in  them;  they  are  often  mutilated,  and  in  the 
worst  possible  condition;  but  they  are  the  in- 
valuable link  that  connects  the  modern  science 
of  Christian  epigraphy  with  the  past,  while  they 
are  also  of  importance  for  the  history  of  the  col- 
lection of  Latin  inscriptions  in  general.  It  is  well 
known  that  between  the  Renaissance  of  Charle- 
magne and  the  Italian  Renaissance  little  or  noth- 
ing was  done  for  the  preservation  of  the  old  in- 
scriptions, which  cast  such  rare  light  on  the  his- 
tory, literature,  and  manners  of  the  society  that 
set  them  in  place.  A  few  names  shine  out,  re- 
lieving this  long  neglect:  Rienzi,  Poggio  Brac- 
ciolini,  the  wonderful  Ciriaco  di  Ancona,  and  his 
counterpart  in  devotion  to  Christian  epigraphy, 
Petrus  Sabinus.  But  with  the  Italian  Renais- 
sance came  an  astonishing,  if  excessive  and  harm- 
ful, awakening  of  piety  toward  the  old  classic 
world.  Its  smallest  relics  and  fragments  were 
collected  and  commented  on  with  a  sacred  en- 
thusiasm. Humanists  and  travellers,  states  and 
cities,  popes  and  kings  and  little  potentates,  col- 
lected personally  or  by  commission  great  numbers 
of  inscriptions,  chiefly  Latin,  and  arranged  for 
public  or  private  use  a  new  kind  of  museum,  the 
lapidary    galleries    of    the    Renaissance.    The    six- 


THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS.        381 

teenth  century  saw  the  local  gatherers  at  work, 
and  also  the  first  attempt  at  a  printed  collection 
made  by  the  humanist,  Conrad  Peutinger,  whose 
name  remains  attached  to  one  of  the  most  curious 
documents  of  antiquity — the  Tabula  Peutingerii, 
or  road  map  of  the  Roman  Empire.  Bankers 
like  the  Fuggers,  and  rulers  like  Charles  V.  and 
Frederick  of  Austria,  caught  the  contagion,  and 
from  that  time  the  collection  of  inscriptions  has 
gone  on  with  almost  unabated  vigor.  Until  very 
recently  a  strict  line  of  demarcation  was  not  made 
by  collectors  between  the  pagan  and  the  Chris- 
tian. Previous  to  this  century,  however,  the 
former  owe  most  to  the  zeal  of  Apians,  Martin 
Smetius,  Scaliger,  Muratori,  Maffei,  and  many 
others  too  numerous  to  mention,  while  the  latter 
owe  a  deep  debt  of  gratitude  to  such  men  as  Bosio, 
Gruter,  Sirmond,  Doni,  Cardinal  Francesco  Bar- 
berini,  Suaresius,  Gori,  Zaccaria,  Marini,  and  Mai, 
and  to  the  different  custodi  of  the  catacombs  in 
the  eighteenth  century. 

In  the  first  half  of  this  century  Marini,  Mai, 
and  Borghesi  sustained  the  honor  of  the  Italian 
name  in  the  science  of  epigraphy,  but  their  light 
pales  before  that  of  De  Rossi,  in  whom  occasion, 
genius,  industry,  and  vocation  conspired  to  pro- 
duce the  greatest  epigraphist  of  all  time,  though 


382       THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS. 

he  would  himself  be  the  last  to  deny  his  debt  to 
the  great  workers  who  preceded  him,  and  of 
whose  printed  and  unprinted  collections  he  made 
such  constant  use.  It  is  totally  foreign  to  our 
purpose  to  present  here  the  results  of  his  labors 
as  an  epigraphist;  let  it  suffice  that  we  give  a 
brief  account  of  the  two  great  works  in  which  can 
most  easily  be  seen  specimens  of  his  peculiar  tal- 
ent and  monuments  of  his  industry,  the  Corpus 
Inscriptionum  Latinarum  and  the  Inscriptiones 
Christiance.  The  former  work  was  often  begun  in 
previous  centuries,  but  as  often  abandoned.  In 
time  the  French  Academy  put  its  hand  to  the 
work  of  collecting  all  the  Latin  inscriptions  of 
antiquity,  but  owing  to  untoward  circumstances 
laid  it  aside.  Finally  the  Royal  Academy  of 
Berlin  took  up  the  difficult  task,  and  has  carried 
it  on  well-nigh  to  completion.^  Early  in  the  fifties 
it  made  a  formal  application  to  De  Rossi  for  aid 
in  the  work,  and  with  the  permission  and  en- 
couragement of  the  Vatican  authorities,  he  con- 
sented. Together  with  Henzen  he  edited  the 
sixth  volume  of  the  Corpus,  containing  the  pagan 
or  non-Christian  inscriptions  of  Rome  and  Latium, 

^  Corpus  InscripHonum  Latinarum,  consilio  et  auctoritate 
Academiae  Litter  arum  regice  Borussicae  editum,  Berolinii,  in 
folio,  vol.  i.-xv.,   1863-1885;   vol.  i.  of  Second  Edition,  1893. 


THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS.        383 

and  personally  made  many  learned  contributions 
to  the  entire  work.  His  knowledge  of  the  manu- 
script collections  of  inscriptions  was  of  the  greatest 
service  at  all  times,  as  well  as  his  free  access  to 
the  Vatican  archives,  his  familiarity  with  the 
topography  of  Rome  and  the  suburbs,  and  his 
fine  scent  in  reconetructing,  which  was  the  real 
secret  of  his  genius. 

It  is  not  enough  to  know  where  the  old  inscrip- 
tions are,  in  what  galleries,  museums,  archives, 
books,  and  manuscripts  the  originals,  whole  or 
fragmentary,  and  their  copies  are  to  be  found. 
Nor  is  it  enough  to  read  the  language  of  the  mar- 
bles and  the  bronzes  with  ease  and  intelligence. 
For  a  great  epigraphist  it  requires  something 
more.  Much  of  the  material  has  come  down  to 
us  in  a  very  imperfect  shape,  broken,  disjointed, 
scattered,  like  the  shreds  of  a  letter  thrown  to  the 
winds.  Then  there  are  the  forgeries  and  the  in- 
terpolations or  mutilations  to  guard  against,  and 
the  transcription  errors  of  ancient  copyists  to  cor- 
rect. There  are  imperfect  lines  to  piece  out  at 
the  beginning  or  the  end,  and  words  to  supply  in 
the  context,  all  of  which  must  be  done  within  cer- 
tain narrow  limits  of  space  or  grammar.  There 
are  the  frequent  abbreviations,  never  quite  the 
same,  even  in  epochs  that  follow  closely  upon  one 


384       THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE   CATACOMBS. 

another.  The  magistracy,  the  law  formulas,  the 
military  service,  the  priesthoods,  and  the  sepul- 
chral system  have  each  their  peculiar  sigla  or 
literae  singulares,  by  which  commonly  recurring 
notions  are  most  easily  expressed.  And  when 
all  this  is  mastered,  when  the  text  is  finally  re- 
stored, and  we  can  read  at  last  what  men  once 
found  worthy  to  say  of  themselves  and  their  deeds, 
only  a  small  part  of  the  task  is  accomplished. 
There  must  come  a  teacher  who  shall  interpret 
all  this,  and  drawing  upon  an  almost  limitless 
treasure  of  philological,  literary,  historical,  and  ar- 
tistic lore,  cause  the  cold  marble  and  the  hard 
bronze  to  speak,  and  give  up  the  secrets  of  the 
men  who  erected  them.  The  epigraphist  must 
be  archaeologist  at  once-  and  antiquarian,  lawyer, 
and  philosopher,  and  be  equally  at  home  in  the 
palace  and  the  forum,  among  the  soldiery  and 
the  priests,  as  in  the  wine-shops  of  the  Suburra 
and  among  the  motley  crowd  that  surges  along 
the  wharves  of  Tiber.  No  detail  of  ancient  life, 
public  or  private,  is  useless  to  him,  and  out  of  his 
enormous  collection  of  facts  and  observations  and 
readings  he  is  forever  drawing  the  items  needed 
to  strengthen  a  hypothesis  or  to  weld  together 
some  long  chain  of  reasoning. 
It   was   precisely   here    that   the    wide    classical 


THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS.       385 

reading  of  De  Rossi,  his  fine  memory  and  his  sys- 
tematic  arrangement    of   notes,    came   to   his   aid, 
and  enabled  him  to  illustrate  his  epigraphic  texts 
with  a  truly  marvellous  wealth  of  apposite  cita- 
tions, out  of  which,  again,  he  knew  how  to  draw 
the  most  striking  lights  upon  the  question  at  is- 
sue.    His    profound    knowledge    of    the    patristic 
texts  was  also  of  great  help  to  him,  since  much  of 
the   old    classic  life   and  thought  is  imbedded   in 
them.     But    his    superiority    to    most    others    lay 
in  two  things:  the  application  of  the  geographical 
method  to  the  study  of  the  inscriptions,  and  the 
skill  with  which  he  used  every  contemporary  doc- 
ument   of   any   nature    whatsoever   when   engaged 
on   a   text.     Quite   early   in   the   Renaissance   the 
wise  idea  had  made  its  way  that  the  inscriptions 
ought    to    be    arranged    in    geographical    families; 
i.e.,  that  they  ought  to  be  restored  as  much  as 
possible  to  those  conditions  of  time  and  space  in 
which  they  arose,  so  as  to  enable  us  to  hear  their 
natural   interpreters — the    contemporary   and   local 
history,    language,    and    manners — and    to    recon- 
struct the  actual  surroundings  of  these  dumb  wit- 
nesses   of   antiquity,    that   have,    indeed,    a   voice, 
but  for  which  an    artificial  throat  and  an  artificial 
atmosphere  must  be  prepared  ere  we  can  hear  its 
tones.    As  early  as  1842  De  Rossi  had  proposed 


386       THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS. 

a  return  to  this  system  in  almost  the  first  work 
of  his  juvenile  pen,  and  he  lived  to  see  it  trium- 
phant in  one  of  the  noblest  works  that  have  issued 
from  the  brain  of  man,  and  which  includes  over 
one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  inscriptions,  il- 
lustrating, with  rarest  accuracy,  the  history  of 
Rome  from  the  earliest  days  when  the  treaty  with 
Gabii  was  painted  on  shields  of  bull's  hide,  down 
to  the  hour  when  the  kingly  Goth  sat  as  master 
on  the  Capitol  and  bade  his  brother  barbarians 
spare  the  records  of  their  fallen  ruler.  ^ 

One  turns  with  pleasure  to  the  Inscriptiones 
Christiance,  in  which  the  second  of  De  Rossi's 
great  epigraphical  merits  is  best  illustrated.  After 
all,  the  classical  world  is  fairly  well  known  and 
much  of  its  literature  has  reached  us.  Its  monu- 
ments are  widely  scattered  and  tell  their  own 
story  very  often.  Occasionally  entire  sections 
come  to  the  surface,  as  in  Algiers  and  in  Rome 
itself.  Finally,  in  the  popular  memory  there 
lives  no  small  share  of  intelligence  of  the  spirit 
and  the  deeds  of  ancient  Rome  and  her  subject 
world.  How  different  is  it  with  the  history  of 
Christianity  within  the  same  limits  of  time!  In 
iterature  we  can  boast  only  of  a  collection  of  frag- 

^  J.  P.  Waltzing :    Le  recueil  general  des  inscriptions  latines, 
et   Vepigraphie    latine   depuis   cinquante   ans.     Louvain,    1892. 


THE  COLUMBUS  OF   THE  CATACOMBS.        387 

ments,  precious  beyond  imagination,  but  which 
are  only  a  tithe  of  what  once  was,  and  are  oftener 
the  voice  of  defence  and  apology  than  of  calm, 
full  exposition  of  belief.  Of  monuments,  until 
De  Rossi  arose,  there  was  the  greatest  dearth,  and 
among  Christians  the  continuity  of  race  and  cul- 
ture and  habitat  has  been  so  often  broken  that 
outside  of  the  Church  herself  we  cannot  look  for 
any  vivid  consciousness  of  the  remote  past. 
Over  the  history  of  the  early  Church  there  lies  a 
deep  twilight,  out  of  which  there  loom,  vague  and 
indistinct,  a  few  figures  and  situations.  The 
want  of  an  honest,  synthetic  view  of  those  primi- 
tive days  was  not  felt  while  the  Christian  unity 
was  unbroken,  but  in  the  last  three  centuries  no 
lost  art  has  been  more  keenly  deplored  than  the 
knowledge  of  the  life  and  manners  of  the  early 
Christian  world.  The  value  of  the  inscriptions 
was  always  recognized.  They  were,  in  fact,  one 
of  the  earhest  forms  of  Christian  hterary  effort, 
and  the  titulus  put  up  to  St.  James  of  Jerusalem, 
and  the  inscribed  group  of  the  Hamorrhoissa,  at 
Paneas,  have  a  claim  on  our  veneration  only  less 
than  that  due  to  the  earliest  literary  remains  of 
the  post-apostolic  age.^ 


1  Cf.  Piper:  Einleitung  in  die  monumentale  Theologie.     Gotha, 
1867. 


388        THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS. 

There  seem  to  have  been  collections  of  Chris- 
tian inscriptions  and  epigrams  before  the  peace 
of  the  Church,  and  the  fact  is  quite  certain  for 
the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries.  The  pious  trav- 
ellers of  the  Carolingian  age  preserved  much  of  the 
material  of  these  old  collections,  and  for  a  long 
time  their  parchments,  together  with  the  writings 
of  men  like  Venantius  Fortunatus,  Isidore  of  Se- 
ville, Alcuin,  and  others  like  Hibernicus  Exul, 
Sedulius  Scotus,  and  the  monks  of  Bobbio,  were 
the  only  literary  sources  whence  a  knowledge  of 
Christian  inscriptions  could  be  got.  There  were 
the  churches,  it  is  true,  and  the  sepulchres  of 
martyrs  and  confessors  and  holy  bishops  and 
popes;  there  was  also  a  multitude  of  inscribed 
objects  over  the  whole  Christian  world,  but  who 
could  visit  them  all?  Outside  of  a  few  in  the  Liber 
Pontificalis  of  Rome  and  a  larger  number  in  its 
namesake  of  Ravenna,  we  know  of  no  attempt 
to  collect  the  epitaphs  of  even  a  series  of  bishops. 
In  the  later  Middle  Ages  the  collecting  of  Chris- 
tian inscriptions  and  epitaphs  was  almost  utterly 
neglected.  Here  and  there  in  the  annals  or 
chronicles  of  the  time  occasional  reference  is  made 
to  inscriptions  or  epitaphs,  but  on  the  whole  the 
science  was  utterly  neglected,  though  the  use  of 
inscriptions    was    by    no    means    diminished.     Not 


THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS,      389 

all  the  chiefs  of  the  Italian  Renaissance  were 
pagan-minded.  From  its  opening  some  atten- 
tion was  paid  to  the  collecting  and  commenting 
of  the  ancient  Christian  inscriptions  that  fell  well 
within  the  limits  of  the  classic  age.  Not  to  speak 
of  earlier  attempts,  we  have  large  and  valuable  col- 
lections made  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century 
by  Ciriaco  di  Ancona  and  Petrus  Sabinus.  Among 
the  great  names  of  the  counter-reformation,  that 
of  Antonio  Bosio  must  always  be  held  in  honor,  not 
alone  for  his  rediscovery  of  a  world  of  ancient 
theological  evidence,  but  for  his  great  zeal  in 
copying  and  collecting  all  the  old  Christian  inscrip- 
tions that  he  came  across.  Others  followed  him, 
like  Doni,  Gori,  Muratori,  Maffei,  and  Marini, 
gathering  mostly  the  inscriptions  to  be  found 
above  ground,  only  rarely  adding  from  the  vast 
stock  of  those  that  lay  mouldering  beneath  their 
feet.  It  was  among  these  men  that  appeared  the 
idea  of  a  Corpus  of  Christian  inscriptions  which 
should  illustrate  the  ancient  Christian  life  and 
serve  as  a  weapon  of  polemic  and  apologetic  war- 
fare. Often  planned  and  begun,  it  was  aban- 
doned as  often  as  the  similar  enterprise  in  the 
province  of  heathen  inscriptions,  until  the  proper 
man  came  in  the  person  of  De  Rossi. 
The  finest  epigraphical  training  on  Roman  soil, 


390        THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS. 

an  accurate  knowledge  of  Roman  topography 
and  of  the  contents  of  every  Roman  gallery  and 
collection,  public  or  private,  a  consuming  passion 
to  piece  together  the  splendid  mosaic  of  the  old 
Christian  life,  intelligent  piety  toward  the  very 
dust  of  antiquity,  a  patient,  orderly,  persevering 
mind,  a  vocation  cherished  by  his  earliest  sur- 
roundings, and  a  special  gift  of  divination,  or 
moments  of  lightning-like  introspection,  in  which 
the  disjecta  membra  that  lay  before  him  took  shape 
beneath  his  prophetic  glance  ere  they  vanished 
again  into  quasi-nothingness,  like  the  old  lucumo- 
nes  beneath  the  glaring  eye  of  an  Etruscan  sim, — 
such  were  some  of  the  qualities  that  this  young 
man  of  twenty  brought  to  the  herculean  task  that 
he  planned,  in  part  executed,  and  for  the  com- 
pletion of  which  he  has  left  the  materials  num- 
bered and  ordered  like  the  great  blocks  of  some 
unfinished  Roman  palace  that  encumber  even 
yet  the  old  marble  Emporium  by  the  Tiber. 

In  the  science  of  Christian  inscriptions  De 
Rossi  towers  above  all  his  predecessors  by  the 
knowledge  of  the  sources  and  the  superiority  of 
his  system.  Under  his  direction  the  Roman 
catacombs  have  yielded  thousands  of  inscriptions, 
whole  or  fragmentary,  and  the  sum  of  Christian 
epigraphic  material  has  been  more  than  doubled. 


THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS.        391 

He  has  himself  visited  innumerable  sites  above 
and  below  ground,  and  carefully  copied  the 
epitaphs,  epigrams,  dedications,  and  the  like  that 
are  found  there.  The  manuscript  collections  of 
Christian  inscriptions  have  been  catalogued  by 
his  skilful  hand,  numbered  according  to  age  and 
value,  their  additions  to  the  body  of  inscriptions 
noted,  and  a  great  deal  of  valuable  incidental  in- 
formation extracted  from  them  for  the  formation 
and  guidance  of  the  Christian  epigraphist.  At 
the  same  time  he  was  distinguished  for  his  knowl- 
edge of  all  books,  museums,  correspondence,  and 
men  who  could  in  any  way  throw  light  on  his 
science.  In  other  words,  he  had  completely 
mastered  the  heuretic  of  Christian  inscriptions; 
that  is,  he  had  surveyed  the  world  of  letters,  lo- 
cated the  whereabouts  of  his  material,  and  mapped 
out  the  roads  and  the  paths  that  led  to  them. 
Precisely  here  is  the  other  great  merit  of  De 
Rossi  as  an  epigraphist.  He  was  a  man  of 
method.  Not  only  did  he  make  the  most  arduous 
preparations,  remote  and  proximate,  for  his  work, 
but  he  invented  new  principles  of  procedure,  or 
rehabihtated  old  ones  fallen  into  desuetude. 
When  we  watch  the  splendid — almost  infallible — 
skill  with  which  he  conducts  his  epigraphic  dem- 
onstrations,    the     studied     moderation     of    every 


392        THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS. 

claim  until  conviction  bursts  spontaneous  from 
the  artful  page,  the  marshalling  of  every  available 
help,  and  the  broad,  serried  march  of  all  that  sum 
of  fact,  suggestion,  comparison  and  parallel — a 
sentiment  of  wonder  clamors  for  expression,  and 
we  cry  out,  with  the  poet,  that  the  art  is  even 
greater  than  the  artist. 

If  chronology  and  geography  are  the  eyes  of 
history,  they  are  especially  serviceable  in  the 
science  of  inscriptions,  which  are  necessarily  la- 
conic, compressed,  and  general  in  their  speech. 
In  the  classic  inscriptions  the  data  of  time  and 
place  are  very  often  given,  or  because  of  their 
great  numbers  and  artistic  perfection  can  be  cal- 
culated from  extrinsic  and  intrinsic  comparison. 
But  such  means  of  control  are  too  often  wanting 
in  the  case  of  Christian  inscriptions,  especially 
of  the  earlier  times.  They  are  rude  in  execution, 
long  since  torn  from  their  surroundings,  or 
scattered  amid  wreckage  of  every  kind  in  the 
catacombs.  They  are  comparatively  few,  and 
rarely  bear  any  chronological  ear-marks.  Many 
a  primitive  Christian  believed  that  this  world  in 
maligno  positus  was  to  be  of  short  duration,  and 
that  human  existence  was,  at  best,  but  the  mora 
finis,  a  beneficent  staying  of  the  divine  hand  up- 
lifted   to    strike    an    unholy    mass    of    corruption. 


THE  COLUMBUS  OF   THE  CATACOMBS.        393 

The  enthusiasm  of  Jesus  Christ  burned  fresh, 
vivid,  and  sweet  in  their  breasts,  and  they  longed 
to  be  joined  with  Him  whose  remembrance  alone 
made  tolerable  their  life  amid  the  seething  sin  and 
shame  of  heathen  society.  Hence  they  paid  little 
attention  to  the  aids  of  human  chronology.  With 
their  eyes  fixed  on  the  celestial  bourne,  they 
counted  the  beginning  of  life  to  be  the  day  of  re- 
lease from  the  prison  of  the  flesh,  and  there  is  an 
echo  of  that  other-world  enthusiasm  in  many 
ancient  acts  of  the  martyrs  that  begin  with  Reg- 
nante  Domino  nostro  Jesu  Christo,  as  though  they 
despised  any  other  pitiful  human  measure  of  time. 
^'Qui  saeculo  nuntiasse  se  meminit,"  says  St.  Cyp- 
rian, ^'nullum  sceculi  diem  novit,  nee  tempora  ter- 
rena  jam  computat  qui  aeternitatem  de  Deo  sperat." 
On  the  other  hand,  the  theological  and  social  value 
of  the  Christian  inscriptions  depends  largely  on 
their  age,  and  we  are  most  anxious  to  know  pre- 
cisely those  little  items  of  years,  months,  and  days 
to  which  the  primitive  Christian  was  so  indifferent. 
Much  has  been  done  before  De  Rossi  by  earlier 
Christian  epigraphists,  but  he  sununed  up  and 
greatly  increased  their  results  in  the  first  volume 
of   the    Inscriptiones    Christianae.^    There  he    sub- 

^  Inscriptiones   Christiance    Urhis   Romce   sepfimo   saeculo  an- 
iiguiores.     Romse,  in  folio,  vol.  i.,  1861;  vol.  ii.,  pars  i.,1888. 


394       THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS. 

mitted  nearly  fourteen  hundred  inscriptions,  that 
bear  some  kind  of  a  date  {nota  temporis),  to  a 
rigorous  external  and  internal  examination,  from 
the  famous  Latin  tablet  of  a.d.  71  down  to  epi- 
taphs and  epigrams  of  the  end  of  the  sixth  cen- 
tury, the  terminus  ad  quern  of  his  great  collection. 
In  every  case  he  develops  the  grave  arguments 
that  lead  him  to  attribute  a  Christian  character 
to  the  inscription  before  him  and  to  assign  it  to 
a  fixed  year  of  the  Christian  era.  In  his  restitu- 
tion of  the  text  and  in  his  rich  commentary  he 
displays  on  every  page  the  qualities  that  ever  dis- 
tinguished him  as  an  epigraphical  writer — patient 
compilation  of  all  the  facts,  orderly  distribution 
according  to  immediate  importance,  vast  read- 
ing, out  of  which  he  drew  the  newest  and  aptest 
parallels  and  luminous  comparisons — those  peculiar 
arguments  which  are  to  archaeology  what  the 
syllogism  is  to  metaphysics.  So  skilful  is  the 
demonstration,  so  perfect  the  distribution  of  lights 
and  shades,  so  modest  the  claims  for  his  victori- 
ous proofs,  that  one  is  tempted  to  fear  that  he 
is  being  influenced  by  a  kind  of  personal  magic 
on  the  part  of  his  author  and  that  he  reads 
through  a  charmed  haze  in  which  objects  have  no 
longer  their  right  proportion  or  color.  Only  the 
amount  of  the  new  knowledge,   the  exactness  of 


THE  COLUMBUS  OF   THE  CATACOMBS.      395 

the  references,  the  deference  paid  the  writer  by 
great  masters  of  his  own  art,  the  natural  persua- 
sion of  his  argument,  even  his  translucent  Latin 
style,  that  reflects  the  noble  candor  of  his  soul, 
dispel  the  impression  that  such  superiority  not 
unnaturally  awakens.  The  first  volume  of  this 
monumental  work  contains,  besides  a  long  preface 
on  the  history  of  the  collections  of  Christian  in- 
scriptions, an  exhaustive  treatise  on  the  chron- 
ological data  furnished  by  the  inscribed  monu- 
ments of  Christianity,  the  eras,  the  jasti  consulares, 
the  cycles,  solar  and  lunar,  and  the  indictions.  In 
this  masterpiece  of  difficult  erudition  he  brings 
together,  from  all  sides,  whatever  may  illustrate 
the  use  of  these  data,  not  only  among  Christians 
but  in  the  surrounding  society,  and  leaves  a  se- 
cure foundation  for  the  labors  of  all  future  scholars 
among  these  disjecta  membra  of  Christian  an- 
tiquity. The  plan  of  this  great  work  includes 
all  the  inscriptions  of  the  Orhis  Christianus  within 
the  first  six  centuries  of  our  era,  taking  them  as 
the  period  when  Christianity  was  conterminous  with 
Gra3CO-Roman  culture.  In  the  execution  of  this 
plan  three  dominant  ideas  are  constantly  kept  in 
view,  viz.,  the  restoration  of  the  inscriptions  to 
their  original  sites,  their  chronological  sequence, 
and  the  apologetic,  theological,  or  antiquarian  use 


396       THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS. 

to  be  derived  from  them.  To  satisfy  at  once  the 
demands  of  his  science  and  the  natural  curiosity 
of  the  Christian  world,  he  divides  his  collection 
into  six  great  parts:  I.  The  inscriptions  bearing 
a  certain  date  (this  is  the  only  part  finished,  and 
contains  some  1374  inscriptions,  besides  frag- 
ments and  addenda).  II.  The  public  historical 
and  sacred  inscriptions  and  all  others  which 
throw  light  on  the  doctrine,  manner,  etc.,  of  the 
early  Christians.  III.  The  inscriptions  arranged 
in  geographical  and  topographical  order,  by  na- 
tions, provinces,  cities,  and  cemeteries.  IV. 
Those  whose  original  location  is  unknown.  V. 
The  forged  inscriptions  and  those  whose  early 
Christian  origin  is  doubtful.  VI.  The  contem- 
porary inscriptions  of  the  Jews.  No  doubt  much 
of  this  vast  plan-work  was  finished  by  the  maes- 
tro ere  he  died,  but  as  yet  only  two  huge  folios, 
the  first  volume  and  the  first  part  of  the  second, 
have  appeared.  We  have  already  outlined  the 
contents  of  the  initial  volume.  The  published 
part  of  the  second  is  entirely  taken  up  with  an 
account  of  the  mediaeval  manuscript  collections 
of  Christian  inscriptions.  Some  of  these  MSS. 
date  from  the  Carolingian  era,  and  are  sources 
of  incalculable  value,  not  only  for  the  epitaphs, 
honorary  inscriptions,  and  other  epigrammata  they 


THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS.       397 

contain,  but  also  for  their  topographical  references 
to  the  ancient  basilicas,  cemeteries,  and  localities 
of  general  interest  to  Christian  pilgrims  at  Rome. 
They  complete  or  explain  the  information  already 
gained  from  the  catacombs  or  the  lapidary  gal- 
leries, and  are  themselves  illustrated,  and  per- 
fected by  the  metrical  anthplogies  of  the  same 
epoch.  .■^^'^"' 

Our  Irish  f orefalt^^-s  ,  were-  foremost  in  the 
mania  for  these  written  remnants  of  antiquity, 
and  no  small  part  of  ancient  Christian  inscrip- 
tional  verse  is  found  imbedded  in  the  metrical 
epigrams  of  Hibernicus  Exul,  Sedulius  Scotus, 
the  seventh-century  monks  of  Bobbio  and  others. 
In  this  volume  we  find  printed  or  reprinted  a  great 
Corpus  of  old  manuscript  codices  from  the  eighth 
to  the  sixteenth  centuries,  in  which  is  preserved 
much  epigraphic  material  otherwise  unknown  or 
lost,  and  which  represent  the  mediseval  tradition 
of  this  science.  These  ancient  manuscripts  needed, 
indeed,  to  be  reproduced  at  the  head  of  the  second 
part  of  the  Inscriptiones  Chrisiiance,  that  the 
world  might  see  what  was  already  known  of 
early  Christian  inscriptions  ere  the  evidences  of 
the  stones  themselves  were  heard.  It  was  all  the 
more  necessary,  as  too  often  the  lapidary  remains 
are   mutilated    and    can    only    be    pieced    out   by 


398        THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS, 

comparison  with  their  ancient  copies  yet  extant 
in  the  manuscripts,  or  with  similar  materials 
scattered  through  the  Carolingian  anthologies  and 
itineraries.  Only  the  epigraphists  and  the  inti- 
mate friends  of  De  Rossi  know  what  labors  this 
second  volume  exacted — how  many  long  journeys, 
vigils,  protracted  studies,  and  profound  researches 
it  cost  to  erect  this  vestibule  of  the  temple  of 
Christian  epigraphy,  truly  grandiose  and  faultless 
in  its  outline.  By  far  the  greater  part  of  the  ma- 
terial contained  in  the  ancient  collections  is  met- 
rical; hence  the  utility  of  the  long  preface  on 
Christian  metrical  inscriptions  which  opens  the 
second  volume,  and  makes  a  most  scholarly  page 
on  the  origin  of  Christian  poetry.  For  their 
models  the  primitive  Christians  had  the  great 
schoolbook  of  the  Empire — the  divine  Vergil;  and 
more  than  one  fine  cento,  thoroughly  Christian  in 
sentiment,  was  made  up  of  odds  and  ends  of  the 
Mantuan.  Not  all  the  Christians  were  satisfied 
with  such  unadorned  expressions  of  emotion  as 
were  conveyed  by  the  soror  carissima,  fiUa  dulcis- 
sima,  vivas  in  Deo,  etc.  Some  ambitioned  a  more 
resounding  phrase,  and  borrowed  with  national 
piety  the  grave  religious  lines  of  their  own  pure 
poet,  who  was  able,  even  after  another  thousand 
years,  to  furnish  thoughts  and  style  to  a  Dante. 


THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS.       399 

That  the  Greek  Christians  showed  metrical  skill 
in  their  inscriptions  is  proven  by  several  examples, 
notably  by  the  epitaphs  of  Alexander  Antonii,  of 
Pectorius  of  Autim,  and  by  the  now  famous  Vati- 
can epitaph  of  Abercius  of  Hieropolis,  in  Phrygia. 
The  latter  memorial  brings  us  back  to  the  reign  of 
Marcus  Aurelius,  and  shows  us  a  section  of  the 
Roman  world  in  the  second  century,  where  the 
Christians  could  fearlessly  put  up  their  funeral 
tablets  by  the  roadside  in  a  populous  province  and 
invoke  the  protection  of  Roman  law  for  their  im- 
munity. The  Christian  use  of  titidi  rhythmici  at 
Rome  and  in  Roman  Africa  during  the  third  cen- 
tury is  proven  from  texts  pilfered  out  of  Com- 
modian  and  from  the  epitaph  of  the  virgin  Severa 
set  up  at  Rome  by  her  deacon-brother  Severus. 
After  the  peace  of  the  Church  the  art  of  the  epi- 
graphist  was  in  honor,  and  the  rude  scratchings 
of  the  fossor  gave  way  to  the  elegant  lettering  of 
a  Furius  Dionysius  Philocalus,  while  the  brief, 
endearing  terms  and  the  touching  hatchments 
of  the  primitive  loculi  were  cast  into  the  shade 
by  the  sculptured  sarcophagus  and  the  florid 
piety  of  its  engraved  verse.  The  flowers  of 
Christian  poesy  were  now  cultivated  by  men  like 
St.  Damasus,  St.  Paulinus  of  Nola,  St.  Gregory 
Nazianzen,  and  Prudentius,  and  their  sweet  petals 


400       THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS. 

scattered  over  the  graves  of  the  dead.    The  cruel 
discipline  of  persecution  was  at  last  relaxed  and 
somewhat  of  earthly  attachment  makes  itself  visi- 
ble in  the  gentle,  loquacious  melancholy  of  these 
pious  epitaphs.     Soon  they  became  the  rage,  and 
Sidonius  ApoUinaris  speaks  of  the  naeniae  epitaphis- 
iarum  as  though  the  art  was  being  overdone.    In 
spite  of  the  decay  of  letters  it  lived  on,  and  the 
literary  remains  of  men  Uke  Venantius  Fortunatus, 
Ennodius,  and  Arator  explain  the  elegance  of  such 
sixth-century   epitaphs   as    those    of   Accia    Maria 
Tulliana,   and    of   the   Anicii    in   old    St.    Peter's. 
But  the  Time  of  Ignorance  came  for  the  penin- 
sula  in   the   seventh   and   eighth   centuries,    when 
the  skill  of  making  ordinary  Latin  verse  was  lost, 
and  even  the  Roman  Church  was  satisfied  with  a 
rude  and  heavy  prose,  while  the  care  of  the  old 
metrical    traditions    was    abandoned    to    the    bar- 
barians   of    Spain,    Ireland,    England,   and    Gaul. 
Isidore   and   Aldhelm,    Bede   and   Alcuin,    Dungal, 
Shiel  of  Liege  and  the  men  of  Bobbio,  Hrabanus 
and   Florus   and   the   Goth   Theodulf,   enshrine   in 
their    writings    a    mass    of    ancient    Christian    epi- 
taphs, whole  and  fragmentary,  sacred  and  mixed. 
So  constant,  indeed,  is  their  use  of  earlier  metrical 
materials  out  of  epigrams,  epitaphs,  and  the  like, 
that  it  is  not  easy  to  say  when  their  verse  is  na- 


THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS.       401 

tive  inspiration  and  when  it  is  borrowed  from 
some  metrical  collection  of  the  fifth  century,  or 
some  scrapbook  of  a  pilgrim  just  returned  from 
his  round  of  the  holy  places  of  Italy  and  the 
Orient. 

The  name  of  De  Rossi  is  inseparably  connected 
with  the  Roman  catacombs.  For  fifty  years  he 
labored  in  their  depths  with  holy  enthusiasm  and 
rare  intelligence.  Under  his  directions  the  ex- 
cavations took  on  a  new  character,  and  their  re- 
sults were  shortly  such  as  almost  to  justify  the 
assertion  that  a  new  science  had  been  created, 
and  to  rehabilitate  a  long-neglected  branch  of 
Christian  learning.  He  was  not  the  discoverer 
of  the  underground  cemeteries  of  Rome:  long 
before  him,  since  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, the  location  of  many  was  known  to  the 
Roman  authorities  and  the  learned  world.  Still 
earher,  the  long  neglect  of  these  venerable  burial- 
places  had  been  broken  in  the  fourteenth  century 
by  odd  visits  of  pious  friars,  and  in  the  fifteenth 
by  the  surreptitious  meetings  of  members  of  the 
semi-pagan  Roman  Academy.  Early  in  the  seven- 
teenth century  they  found  a  choice  spirit  capa- 
ble of  illustrating  their  mysteries  and  shrewd 
enough  to  seize  the  proper  principles  for  the  study 
of  this  great  complexus  of  graveyards,   in  which 


402       THE  COLUMBUS  OF   THE  CATACOMBS. 

time  and  man  had  worked  almost  irreparable 
havoc.  This  was  Antonio  Bosio,  a  Roman  priest 
of  Maltese  birth,  who  devoted  thirty-six  years  of 
his  life  to  reconnoitring  the  location,  number, 
and  monuments  of  the  catacombs.  His  great 
work,  Roma  Sotterranea,  was  not  published  till 
after  his  death,  in  1632-34,  and  though  it  created 
much  talk  in  the  world  of  antiquarians  and  theolo- 
gians, there  arose  no  second  Bosio  to  complete 
the  task  until  the  advent  of  De  Rossi.  In  the 
meantime  relic-hunters  and  curio-seekers  travelled 
the  huge  network  in  every  direction,  without  in- 
telligence or  sympathy  for  the  architecture  and 
the  paintings,  and  did  imspeakable  harm  by 
their  reckless  excavations  and  by  their  neglect  to 
chronicle  intelligently  what  they  met  with.  The 
catacombs  were  treated  as  a  huge  quarry.  Price- 
less inscriptions  were  taken  away  in  cartloads 
and  sawed  into  slabs  to  pave  the  Roman  churches 
or  inserted  in  the  walls  of  private  houses.  Even 
as  late  as  the  early  part  of  this  century  men  like 
Marini  could  see  epitaphs  taken  from  the  most 
celebrated  crypts  without  asking  the  excavators 
for  any  further  details.  The  corridors,  or  am^ 
hulacra,  were  broken  down  and  clogged  up;  the 
lucernaria,  or  shafts  for  light  and  air,  were 
choked    from    above   with    refuse;     rich    material 


THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS.       403 

treasures  disappeared  without  leaving  any  trace; 
the  frescoes  were  detached  from  their  original 
site  and  perished  in  the  transit  to  the  upper  air. 
Nearly  every  indignity  was  offered  to  these  holy 
places  in  which  a  Damasus  feared  to  repose  even 
in  death.  The  custodi  of  the  last  two  centuries, 
and  the  learned  Romans  of  the  early  part  of  this, 
were  active  and  practical  men  who  spent  much 
time  in  the  old  cemeteries,  but  were  chiefly  taken 
up  with  the  research  of  material  for  polemics  or 
apologetics  or  for  minor  objects  of  antiquarian 
interest.  Even  Padre  Marchi,  the  guide  and  pre- 
ceptor of  De  Rossi,  was  slow  to  adopt  the  new 
methods  which  this  young  man  of  genius  urged 
on  him  from  1842. 

The  method  of  De  Rossi  was  so  simple  that  we 
wonder  to-day  how  it  did  not  suggest  itself  at  a 
much  earher  date.  It  consists  in  two  things  — 
topography  and  chronology.  It  was  his  habit  to 
locate  first,  with  certain  helps  at  his  command, 
the  principal  cemeteries  usually  situate  along  the 
old  Roman  roads  leading  out  from  the  city  like 
the  spokes  of  a  wheel.  When  he  had  done  this, 
he  looked  up  their  history  in  the  books,  manu- 
scripts, and  traditions  at  his  command.  Know- 
ing their  site  and  their  history,  his  next  object 
was   to    find    the    historical    crypts    or    the    great 


404       THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS, 

chambers  in  which  the  most  illustrious  martyrs 
were  buried  and  venerated.  There  was  a  double 
reason  for  this,  since,  on  the  one  hand,  they  were 
the  keys  to  each  necropolis,  the  subterranean  fora 
to  and  from  which  all  corridors  finally  led;  on 
the  other,  they  were  most  likely  to  contain  en- 
tire the  booty  of  epitaphs,  paintings,  sculptures, 
etc.,  for  which  he  was  likewise  searching.  It  was 
a  kind  of  mimic  warfare,  in  which  he  directed  his 
first  efforts  to  the  capture  of  the  enemy^s  citadel 
and  chief  treasures.  Once  in  a  historical  crypt,  he 
made  the  most  perfect  inventory  of  its  structure, 
the  objects  found,  and  of  the  process  by  which 
he  got  there.  Nothing  escaped  his  practised  eye, 
which  read  books  written  largely  on  walls  and 
floors,  where  the  ordinary  observer  stumbled  or 
tripped  at  every  step.  His  inventory  made,  he 
turned  to  a  series  of  valuable  documents  come 
down  from  the  Middle  Ages,  and  found,  invari- 
ably, new  light  upon  the  fragments  of  Christian 
antiquity  that  he  had  so  patiently  dug  up  out  of 
the  bowels  of  the  earth.  Little  by  little  he  con- 
nected the  great  crypts,  drew  up  the  plan  of  the 
connecting  corridors,  located  the  staircases  that 
led  from  one  floor  of  the  cemetery  to  another, 
fixed  the  limits  of  the  original  burying-place  and 
the  successive  additions  and  modifications,  gained 


THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS.      405 

the  old  and  the  new  levels,  determined  the  rela- 
tive situation  of  the  whole  underground  structure, 
with  the  little  churches  or  basilicas  and  sepulchres 
constructed  immediately  above  ground,   and  took 
note    of    the    geological    formation.'    It    is    easier 
to  imagine  than  to  describe  the  patience,  memory, 
skill,  erudition,  and  self-command  needed  to  carry 
on  at  once  all  these  minor  lines  of  one  great  plan. 
Whatever   may   be   the   difficulties   of   excavation 
in  the  open  air,  they  are  vastly  increased  when 
the  work  is  carried  on  beneath  the  surface,  where 
want  of  room,  light,   and  fresh  air  are  only  the 
least  of  the   obstacles,   and  not  to  be   compared 
with  the  difficulty  of  control  of  workers  and  ob- 
jects,   the    ease    with   which    valuable    indications 
may  be  skipped,   and  the  constant  fear  lest  the 
roofs  sag,  or  sudden  pits  open  up,  or  a  ruined  wall 
shde  across  the  toilsome  path  of  the  fossor.    Only 
half  of  his  work  was  done  when  the  topography 
of  a  cemetery  lay  before  his  eyes  pretty  much  as 
it  looked  when  the  traveller  from  the  Orontes  met 
the  pilgrim  from  the  Thames  or  the  Liffey  on  the 
marble  stairways  that  led  from  the  richly  deco- 

^Michele  de  Rossi,  the  brother  of  the  arch^ologist,  deserves 
most  honorable  mention  whenever  the  l^^te^/^  ^^  'n  ^l^i 
was  for  fifty  years  an  invaluable  helper  to  his  brother  m  all 
ILTngs  pertLing  to  the  geology,  engineering,  and  architec- 
ture  of   the   catacombs. 


406       THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS. 

rated  overground  basilica  to  the  chief  crypts, 
where  lay  the  embalmed  bodies  of  popes  and 
martyrs,  shrouded  in  gold  brocade,  entombed  in 
marble  sarcophagi,  and  surrounded  by  hundreds 
of  venerators,  amid  the  blaze  of  candles  and  the 
grave,  sweet  chants  of  the  litanies.  There  was 
an  equally  difficult  task  to  perform  in  fixing  the 
respective  dates  to  which  all  these  things  belonged. 
Independently  of  theological  interests,  there  was 
a  pressing  scientific  need  that  the  chronology  of 
the  architecture  and  the  art  of  the  catacombs 
should  be  accurately  determined.  Before  De 
Rossi,  Bosio  had  grasped  the  idea  that  a  true 
thread  in  this  labyrinth  was  a  correct  notion  of 
its  topography,  and  De  Rossi  acknowledges  this 
with  that  grateful  delight  which  he  always  mani- 
fests when  he  can  do  honor  to  Bosio's  judgment. 
But  to  De  Rossi  alone  belongs  the  merit  of  fixing 
a  certain  chronology  for  the  internal  evolution 
of  the  cemetery  system  of  Christian  Rome.  The 
principle  of  this  chronology  is  set  forth  in  the  first 
volume  of  the  Inscriptiones  ChristiancB,  and  con- 
sists largely  in  the  process  de  notis  ad  ignota.  He 
collected  the  epitaphs  that  bore  a  certain  date, 
and  noted  all  their  peculiarities.  Hence  he  had 
a  starting-point  for  similar  epitaphs  undated,  and 
a  first  means  of  determining  whether  the  crypt  in 


THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS.      407 

which  they  were  found  dated  from  the  second  or 
the  sixth  century.  The  inscribed  monuments 
thus  classified  enabled  him  to  fix  approximately 
the  date  of  the  paintings  and  sculptures  on 
which  they  are  often  found,  and  with  which  they 
are  often  contemporary.  The  excavations  and 
constructions  of  the  catacombs  could  also  be 
dated  in  the  same  way,  since  there  are  naturally 
the  closest  relations  of  time  between  them  and 
the  objects  for  which  they  were  carried  on.  An- 
other principle  of  his  chronological  method  was 
the  restitution,  as  far  as  possible,  to  their  original 
sites,  of  all  the  ornaments  and  epitaphs  that  once 
decorated  them.  This  gave  him  a  'point  d^appui 
for  the  age  of  the  corridor  or  crypt,  surely  as  old 
or  older  than  the  monimients  found  in  it.  In  such 
intricate  and  delicate  processes  the  investigators 
can  neglect  nothing  found  on  the  premises  or  ex- 
tracted from  a  certain  class  of  ancient  authors 
and  traditions.  Hence  the  extreme  minuteness 
of  the  chronological  demonstrations  of  De  Rossi. 
At  this  remoteness  from  the  early  Christian  world, 
and  at  those  depths  in  the  earth,  the  student  is 
like  the  traveller  lost  in  the  primeval  forest,  to 
whom  every  ray  and  sound  and  motion,  however 
faint,  are  welcome  helps.  Moreover,  he  felt  that 
he  would  never  live  to  finish  his  great  work,  and 


408       THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS. 

he  chose  to  leave  the  most  elaborate  examples 
of  his  method  for  the  instruction  of  his  disciples 
and  as  a  fund  of  suggestions  useful  to  future 
archaeologists.  Finally,  he  was  an  artist  in  anti- 
quarian work,  and  he  delighted  in  conquering  the 
difficulties  of  some  obscure  date,  and  in  unravel- 
ling with  finished  skill  the  last  intricacies  of  a  knot 
that  lay  unopened  for  centuries. 

One  charm  of  De  Rossi's  writings  on  the  old 
Christian  cemeteries  is  the  skill  with  which  he  con- 
ducts his  investigation  on  two  lines — one  the  descrip- 
tion of  the  actual  condition  and  the  remaining 
monuments  of  the  cemeteries,  and  the  other  the  use 
of  a  number  of  old  documents,  out  of  which,  as  out 
of  a  magician's  hat,  he  seems  to  draw  an  infinity 
of  useful  facts  that  corroborate  or  illustrate,  or 
fill  up  crevices  or  breaks,  or  serve  as  guides  and 
finger-posts  or  danger-signals — in  a  word,  are  a 
kind  of  vade  mecum,  or  familiar  demon,  which 
help  him  out  of  every  tangle.  The  tombs  of  the 
martyrs,  and  especially  the  illustrious  ones  of 
Rome,  excited  deep  interest  from  the  earliest  days. 
If  the  statement  of  the  Liher  Pontificalis — that 
Anacletus  built  a  memoria,  or  little  chapel,  over 
the  body  of  his  predecessor,  St.  Peter — is  not  ab- 
solutely reliable,  no  one  can  gainsay  the  second- 
century    Roman    priest.    Gains,    when    he    shows 


THE  COLUMBUS  OF  TEE  CATACOMBS.       409 

US  the  public  sepulchres  of  St.  Peter  and  St. 
Paul,  one  on  the  Ostian  Way  and  the  other  in 
Vaticano. 

We  believe  that  there  was  a  Christian  cemetery  in 
the  latter  place  from  the  very  beginning,  and  that 
a  future  time  will  show  some  illustrious  Christian 
dead  gathered  round  Peter  and  Linus  and  Ana- 
cletus  under  the  bronze  columns  and  the  match- 
less dome  of  the  modern  basilica.  The  Roman 
Church  had  twenty-four  or  twenty-five  under- 
ground cemeteries  at  the  end  of  the  third  century 
— one  for  every  ecclesiastical  division  or  quasi- 
parish — and  no  doubt  there  was  a  list  of  them, 
their  administration  and  expenses,  as  exact  as 
that  kept  fifty  years  earlier  by  St.  Cornelius  for 
his  priests,  his  poor,  his  widows  and  orphans.  So 
systematic  and  precise,  so  easily  bureaucratic  is 
the  Roman  mind,  that  it  is  impossible  to  conceive 
that  church  at  any  date  without  archives,  cata- 
logues, lists,  and  all  the  administrative  parapher- 
nalia of  a  governing  body.  The  persecution  of 
Diocletian  burst  like  a  prairie-fire  over  the  Roman 
Church,  and  when  she  emerged,  early  in  the 
fourth  century,  there  was  scarcely  a  stick  of  wood 
or  a  scrap  of  writing  that  remained.  In  the  first 
three  centuries  the  longest  pontifical  vacancy  was 
about  one  year,  during  the  persecution  of  Deciua. 


410       THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS, 

This  time  the  See  of  Rome  seems  to  have  been 
vacant  for  six  years,  nor  do  we  find  any  traces  of 
that  presbyteral  government  which  took  charge 
of  chm*ch  affairs  in  the  time  of  Decius.  There 
is,  therefore,  but  the  faintest  hope  that  any  new 
documents  will  ever  turn  up  to  illustrate  the  pre- 
Constantinian  period  of  the  ancient  cemeteries  of 
Rome.  Their  place  is  taken  necessarily  by  late 
martyrologies,  calendars,  acts  of  the  martyrs, 
writings  of  Popes,  historico-liturgical  books  of 
the  Roman  Church,  and  by  old  topographies  and 
itineraries  come  down  to  us  from  the  Carolingian 
epoch.  Among  the  old  martyrologies  the  most 
famous  is  that  known  as  the  Martyrology  of  St. 
Jerome  {Martyr ologium  Hieronymianum) .  In  its 
present  shape  it  comes  to  us  from  Auxerre,  in 
France,  where  it  underwent  considerable  remodel- 
ling in  the  sixth  century.  But  it  is  older  than 
that,  and  is  surely  an  Italian  compilation  of  the 
fifth  century,  out  of  rare  and  reliable  documents 
furnished  by  the  churches  of  Rome,  Africa,  Pales- 
tine, Egypt,  and  the  Orient.  No  mart5rrology 
contains  so  many  names  and  indications  of  saints 
and  martyrs  of  a  very  early  period,  and  it  is  of 
especial  value  for  the  study  of  the  catacombs, 
because  it  very  frequently  gives  the  roads  and 
the  cemeteries  where  they  were  buried  and  ven- 


THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS,       411 

erated  in  the  fifth  century,  while  the  cemeteries 
were  yet  intact.  By  dint  of  transcription,  how- 
ever, and  through  the  neglect  or  ignorance  of 
copyists,  the  text  has  become  in  many  places  hope- 
lessly corrupt,  and  the  restitution  of  its  dates  and 
local  and  personal  indications  has  been  one  of  the 
hardest  crosses  of  ancient  and  modern  church 
archaeologists.  Besides  its  very  ancient  notices  of 
the  cemeteries,  this  martyrology  is  of  great  value 
as  embodying  a  catalogue  of  martyrs  and  basilicas 
of  Rome  that  surely  goes  back  to  the  early  part 
of  the  fifth  century,  and  perhaps  a  third-century 
catalogue  of  the  Roman  Pontiffs.^  Several  other 
martyrologies  of  the  eighth  and  ninth  centuries 
contain  valuable  references  to  the  martyrs  and  the 
cemeteries,  especially  that  known  as  the  Little 
Roman  martyrology,  and  which  served  as  a  basis 
for  the  well-known  compilation  of  Ado. 

Next  in  importance  comes  an  ancient  Roman 
Calendar^  published  between  the  years  334-356, 
written  out  and  illustrated  by  a  certain  Furius 
Dionysius  Philocalus,  who,  doubtless,  had  no  idea 
that  he  would  one  day  set  wagging  the  tongues 


^  One  of  the  last  works  of  De  Rossi  was  to  prepare,  in  co- 
operation with  Duchesne,  the  text  of  this  most  tangled  and 
corrupted  document  for  the  latest  volume  of  the  Acta  Sanc- 
torum  (1894). 


412       THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS. 

of  two  hemispheres.  This  calendar  contains  a  hst 
of  the  Popes,  known  formerly  as  the  Bucherian 
Catalogue,  from  the  name  of  its  first  editor,  and 
the  Liberian,  from  the  Pope  with  whom  it  ends. 
The  whole  book  is  now  known  as  the  "Chronog- 
rapher  of  a.d.  354."  Besides  this  ancient  papal 
catalogue,  the  book  contains  an  official  calendar, 
civil  and  astronomical,  lunar  cycles,  and  a  paschal 
table  calculated  to  412,  a  list  of  the  prefects  of 
Rome  (254-354),  the  only  continuous  one  known, 
a  chronicle  of  Roman  history,  the  natalitia  Ccesa- 
rum,  and  other  useful  contents,  which  have  caused 
it  to  be  dubbed  the  oldest  Christian  Almanac,  It 
contains  numerous  traces  of  having  been  drawn 
up  for  the  use  of  the  Roman  Church,  and  hence 
the  value  of  two  of  its  documents  for  the  ceme- 
teries. They  are,  respectively,  a  list  of  the  en- 
tombments of  Roman  bishops  from  Lucius  to  Syl- 
vester (253-335),  with  the  place  of  their  burial, 
and  a  Depositio  Martyrum,  or  list  of  the  more 
solemn  fixed  feasts  of  the  Roman  Church,  with 
indications  of  several  famous  martyrs  and  their 
cemeteries.  The  importance  of  all  this  for  the 
original  topography  is  too  clear  to  need  comment. 
We  will  only  add  that  closer  examination  of  the 
ecclesiastical  documents  of  the  Chronographer  of 
354  leaves  us  persuaded  that  they  date  from  the 


THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS.      413 

third  century  and  represent  the  location  of  the 
cemeteries  at  that  time  and  the  martyrs  whose 
cult   was  then   most   popular. 

In  the  latter  half  of  the  fourth  century  Pope 
St.  Damasus  (366-384)  did  much  to  beautify  the 
ancient  Roman  cemeteries  and  to  decorate  the 
tombs  of  the  most  illustrious  martyrs.  As  he  pos- 
sessed a  fine  poetic  talent,  he  composed  many 
elegant  inscriptions,  which  were  engraved  on 
large  marble  slabs  by  his  friend  and  admirer, 
Furius  Dionysius  Philocalus,  already  known  to 
us  as  the  calligrapher  of  the  preceding  document. 
The  lettering  used  by  this  remarkable  man  was 
very  ornamental,  and  as  its  exact  like  is  not 
found  before  or  after,  it  has  been  styled  the  hie- 
ratic writing  of  the  catacombs.  In  time  these  in- 
scriptions were  copied  by  strangers  and  inserted 
in  various  anthologies  and  travellers^  scrapbooks 
or  portfolios.  Many  of  the  original  stones  per- 
ished from  various  causes,  but  were  piously  re- 
newed in  situ  during  the  sixth  century.  To  these 
Damasan  inscriptions  De  Rossi  owes  much,  since 
any  fragment  of  them  in  a  cemetery  indicates  an 
historic  crypt,  and  their  copies  in  the  manuscripts 
are  links  for  the  construction  of  the  chain  of  his- 
tory that  connects  each  great  cemetery  with  the 
modern  investigator. 


414       THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS. 

To  the  above  fontes,  or  sources  of  information 
and  control,  De  Rossi  added  the  historico-liturgical 
literature  of  the  Roman  Church  from  the  fourth 
to  the  eighth  centuries — the  period  in  which  the 
bodies  of  the  most  celebrated  martyrs  began  to 
be  removed  en  masse  from  the  catacombs,  through 
fear  of  the  marauding  Lombards.  Such  are  the 
Liber  Pontificalis  in  its  several  recensions,  the  acts 
of  the  martyrs,  chiefly  the  Roman  ones,  the  calen- 
dars of  the  Roman  Church  constructed  out  of  the 
missals  or  sacramentaries,  the  antiphonaries,  capit- 
ularies of  the  gospels,  and  the  like,  in  which  not 
infrequently  there  are  hints  and  directions  con- 
cerning the  cemeteries  and  the  martyrs  of  renown 
who  were  yet  buried  there.  Finally,  the  maestro 
extracted  almost  endless  information  from  the 
old  Roman  topographies  of  travellers  and  the 
itineraries  of  pilgrims.  Of  the  former  we  possess 
yet  two  curious  remnants,  entitled  Notitice  re- 
gionum  urhis  Romce  and  Curiosum  urhis  Romce, 
as  well  as  a  list  of  oils  collected  at  the  shrines  of 
the  Roman  martyrs  by  an  agent  of  Queen  Theodo- 
linda,  and  known  as  the  Papyrus  of  Monza.  An 
old  Syriac  text  of  the  sixth  century  and  a  note  of 
the  innumercB  cellulce  martyrum  consecratce  in  the 
almanac  of  Polemius  Silvius  (499)  complete  the 
list  of  strictly  topographical   authorities.    Certain 


THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS.        415 

itineraries  of  pilgrims  from  the  seventh  to  the 
ninth  century  are  not  less  useful  as  indicating  the 
names  and  sites  of  the  cemeteries,  whether  above 
or  below  ground,  and  what  bodies  were  yet  en- 
tombed therein,  as  well  as  the  distances  between 
the  cemeteries,  and  their  position  relative  to  the 
great  monuments  of  the  city. 

After  the  middle  of  the  ninth  century  the  his- 
toric crypts  had  been  emptied  and  the  bodies 
brought  to  Roman  churches.  Naturally,  the 
written  references  to  the  catacombs  ceased  with 
the  visitors,  and  a  stray  chapter  in  the  Mirahilia 
Urbis  RomoB  or  an  odd  indication  in  the  Lihri  In- 
dulgentiarum  kept  alive  the  memory  of  those  holy 
places  which  once  attracted  a  world  of  pilgrims. 
It  is  not  easy  to  explain  how  one  of  the  best  of 
the  old  itineraries,  referable  to  the  seventh  cen- 
tury, should  have  fallen  into  the  hands  of  William 
of  Malmsbury,  and  been  by  him  copied  into  his 
account  of  the  visit  of  the  Crusaders  to  Rome  imder 
Urban  II.  Neither  is  it  easy  to  explain  why  the 
old  itineraries  of  Einsiedeln,  Wiirtzburg,  and  Salz- 
burg make  no  mention  of  the  tombs  of  such  cele- 
brated Roman  martyrs  as  St.  Clement  the  consul, 
St.  Justin  the  philosopher,  Appollonius  the  Roman 
senator,  Moses,  a  famous  priest  of  the  time  of  St. 
Cornelius,  and  many  other  celebrities  of  the  early 


416       THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS. 

Roman  Church;  who  were,  in  all  likelihood,  buried 
in  some  of  the  many  Roman  cemeteries.  What 
the  old  pilgrims  saw  they  related  honestly  and 
faithfully;  more  they  compiled  from  guides  now 
lost.  They  were  not  learned  men,  but  pious 
travellers,  anxious  to  benefit  their  successors, 
and  unconsciously  enabling  us  to  form  some 
exact  idea  of  the  solemn  cultus  that  they  once 
assisted  at. 

Such,  in  general,  were  the  means  which  De 
Rossi  had  at  hand  for  the  reconstruction  of  that 
under-world  of  Christian  Rome.  But  what  pen 
will  relate  his  patient  research  in  all  these  old 
manuscripts  and  books?  Or  who  can  properly 
estimate  the  fine  ingenuity  of  cross-examination, 
by  which  he  laid  bare  the  genesis  of  his  authori- 
ties? Scarcely  a  library  in  Europe  did  he  leave 
unvisited  in  his  determination  to  bring  together 
every  scrap  of  evidence  as  to  the  name,  site,  and 
monuments  of  the  Roman  cemeteries,  and  his 
very  wanderings  diffused  a  new  enthusiasm  in 
every  country,  and  brought  new  disciples  yearly 
to  the  modest  home  beneath  the  shadow  of  the 
Capitol.  It  would  take  too  long  to  enumerate 
all  the  results  of  his  excavations  in  the  Roman 
cemeteries.  As  far  as  published,  they  are  to 
be  found   in   the   three  great  folios   of   his  Roma 


THE   COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS.       417 

Sotterranea  ^  and  in  the  Bulletino  di  Archeologia 
Cristiana.  The  former  includes  only  the  results  of 
work  done  in  St.  Callixtus  and  the  little  network 
of  crypts  and  burial-places  connected  with  it.^ 
His  intention  was  to  take  up  all  the  cemeteries  in 
turn,  and  when  death  surprised  him  he  was  far 
advanced  with  the  pubhcation  of  his  labors  in  St. 
Domitilla.  When  the  cemeteries  had  been  exca- 
vated and  described,  it  would  be  time  to  think  of 
the  great  synthetic  work  that  Settele  and  others 


^  La  Roma  Sotterranea  Cristiana,  descritta  ed  illustrata 
dal  cav.  G.  B.  De  Rossi,  pubblicata  per  ordine  dell  a  San- 
tit^  di  N.  S.  Pio  IX.  Roma:  vol.  i.,  1864,;  vol.  ii.,  1867 j 
vol.   iii.,  1877. 

2  The  most  famous  of  the  discoveries  in  the  cemetery  of 
Callixtus  are,  besides  the  identification  of  it,  the  crypt  of  Lu- 
cina,  the  Papal  crypt,  with  epitaphs  and  loculi  of  third-cen- 
tury Popes,  the  crypt  of  St.  Cecilia,  the  sepulchre  of  St. 
Cornelius,  the  arenarium  of  St.  Hippolytus,  the  epitaphs  of 
St.  Eusebius  and  of  Severus,  and  the  cemeteries  of  St.  Soteris 
and  St.  Balbina,  closely  connected  with  that  of  Callixtus.  I 
forbear  to  speak  here  of  the  paintings  and  sculptures  or  of 
the  varium  suppellectile,  the  lamps,  medals,  glasses,  ivories, 
and  other  sepulchral  furniture  of  the  Christians,  in  all  of  which 
St.  Callixtus  is  rich.  The  prefaces  of  the  Roma  Sotterranea 
contain  a  complete  history  of  the  catacombs,  their  origin  and 
Christian  character,  their  external  vicissitudes,  the  order  and 
method  of  their  construction,  their  decoration  and  use  &a 
places  of  worship  and  the  gradual  decline  of  their  fame.  The 
results  of  the  excavations,  from  an  artistic  and  theological 
view-point,  are  well  summarized  in  a  number  of  works, 
notably  in  the  Roma  Sotterranea  of  Northcote  and  Brown- 
low,  and  in  the  Ejyitaphs  of  the  Catacombs,  by  the  same 
authors. 


418         THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS. 

sighed  for;  and  which   he   himself  looked   forward 
to  in  his  dreams/ 


III. 

Though  De  Rossi  did  not  live  to  finish  his  Roma 
Sotterranea,  he  left  abundant  materials  for  that 
purpose  in  his  Bullettino  di  Archeologia  Cristiana, 
a  serial  publication,  which  was  like  a  continuous 
appendix  to  the  two  great  works  we  have  hitherto 
been   describing.     It   consists    of   five    series — from 

i"It  seems  to  me  that  the  local  and  industrial  labors  of 
aU  Christian  archaeologists  will  one  day  furnish  the  materials 
for  a  gigantic  work,  more  beautiful  and  useful  than  could 
ever  be  hoped  for  in  any  minor  synthesis  of  Christian  antiq- 
uities. I  have  in  mind  an  Orbis  Christianus,  illustrated  by 
the  monuments  of  the  first  six  or  seven  centuries.  Suarez 
in  the  seventeenth,  and  Garampi  in  the  eighteenth,  sketched 
a  vast  work,  which  should  furnish  us  the  series  of  the  bishops 
of  every  church  of  Christendom.  I  desire  to  see  a  great  Chris- 
tian geography,  in  which  the  origins  of  each  church,  the  first 
traces  of  the  faith  in  each  city  and  burgh,  the  proofs  of  its 
development  and  full  flowering  in  every  province  and  nation 
of  the  ancient  world,  shall  be  collected  and  disposed  in  geo- 
graphical and  historical  order.  That  day  the  smallest  shred 
of  an  old  epitaph,  the  least  bit  of  an  old  sculpture,  will  be  wit- 
nesses of  the  highest  importance  as  proving  the  presence  of 
Christians  in  such  a  place  and  such  a  century.  The  very 
scarcity  or  even  absence  of  these  indications  ought  to  nerve 
us  to  fresh  research  on  the  lines  of  history  and  topography. 
T  hope  the  day  will  come  when  my  Roma  Sotterranea  will  be 
but  a  part  of  an  Orhe  Cristiano  Monumentale,  for  which  both 
I  and  other  editors  of  the  sacred  monuments  are  but  the  pur- 
veyors of  material  or  builders  of  particular  parts." — Roma 
Sott.,  vol.  i.,  p.  82. 


THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS.     419 

1863  to  1894 — and  is  ornamented  by  a  multitude 
of  rare  plates,  maps,  engravings,  designs,  and  in- 
scriptions that  are  found  elsewhere  with  difficulty 
or  not  at  all.  A  complete  copy  of  it  is  now  a 
rarity.^  For  a  time  it  was  regularly  translated  into 
French,  first  by  Martigny  and  then  by  Duchesne. 
It  is  a  workshop  or  storehouse  of  materials,  in 
which  De  Rossi  laid  up  countless  essays,  notes, 
disquisitions  on  the  written  and  unwritten  monu- 
ments and  sources  of  Christian  antiquity.  There 
is  scarcely  a  Roman  cemetery  unmentioned  here. 
Those  of  Maximus,  and  Hermes,  and  Hippolytus, 
of  Generosa,  Ciriacus,  Peter,  and  Marcellinus,  the 
Ostriano,  and  the  cemeteries  of  Callixtus,  Balbina, 
and  Agnes  have  many  pages  devoted  to  them, 
while  much  of  his  enormous  and  entirely  novel 
studies  concerning  the  cemeteries  of  Domitilla 
and  Priscilla  saw  the  light  for  the  first  time  in  its 
columns.  The  overground  cemeteries  and  the 
suburban  ones,  as  well  as  the  various  hypogei  and 
crypts,  Jewish  and  heretical  cemeteries,  that  in 
the  sacred  grove  of  the  Fratres  Arvales,  and  even 
Mithraic  grottoes — all  find  welcome  here,  where 
a  great  fund  of  observation  and  suggestion  is 
massed    up    against    future    need.     Epitaphs    and 

^Bullettino    di    Archeologia    Cristiana,    del.    Cav.    Giovanni 
Battista  De  Rossi,     Roma,   1863-1894   (five  series). 


420         THE  COLUMBUS  OF   THE  CATACOMBS. 

inscriptions  that  in  any  way  throw  hght  on  his 
cemetery  work  are  copied  here  with  extreme  care, 
and  largely  commented  on,  whether  Roman  or 
foreign;  early  Christian  or  mediseval;  classic, 
Damasan,  or  graffiti;  opisthograph,  forged  or  de- 
faced. 

It  is  interesting  to  read  on  one  page  an  essay 
on  the  epigraphic  traces  of  Christianity  in  Pompeii, 
on  another  of  the  inscriptions  that  enable  us  to 
trace  back  the  Christian  character  of  the  Pom- 
ponii  Grsecini  and  the  Acilii  Glabriones  to  the  first 
preaching  of  the  faith  in  Rome,  on  a  third  of  the 
invocations  scratched  by  early  Christian  sailors 
on  a  great  rock  in  the  port  of  Sira,  and  on  a 
fourth  of  the  epitaphs  of  the  African  martyrs  of 
Milevi  and  Setif.  The  ancient  Christian  memo- 
ries of  SS.  Peter  and  Paul,  scattered  through  the 
old  Roman  world,  were  always  dear  to  De  Rossi, 
and  he  has  noted  a  great  number  of  them,  from 
the  old  bronze  medallion  of  the  founders  of  the 
Roman  Church  down  to  the  chair  of  St.  Peter, 
on  which  there  is  a  long  and  elegant  dissertation. 
Famous  sepulchres  in  the  old  Roman  churches, 
like  those  of  Junius  Bassus  and  St.  Cyril,  drew 
from  the  maestro  a  fund  of  lore  on  the  burial  cus- 
toms of  the  early  Christians,  while  the  origins  of 
the   earliest    Roman    churches   exercised   always   a 


THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS.      421 

special  charm  on  his  antiquarian  soul.  He  lingers 
long  and  lovingly  over  the  early  history  of  St. 
Clement  and  St.  Maria  in  Trastevere,  St.  Prisca 
and  St.  Pudentiana,  the  basilicas  of  Domitilla, 
Petronilla,  Nereus  and  Achilleus,  Cosmas  and 
Damian,  and  the  massive  old  fortress-church  of 
the  Quattro  Coronati.  The  fourth  century  was 
in  many  ways  a  remarkable  one  in  Eome.  It 
saw  the  gradual  transfer  of  the  balance  of  power, 
both  popular  and  legal,  from  pagan  to  Christian 
hands — an  act  which  left  its  impress  on  the  public 
monuments,  like  the  Arch  of  Constantine,  and 
in  the  history  of  th'e  great  Roman  families.  In 
the  Bulletino  we  seem  to  watch  this  struggle  as 
though  it  took  place  to-day,  and  there  are  few 
specimens  of  eloquence  more  simple  and  monu- 
mental than  the  essays  on  the  cessation  of  the 
priesthood  of  the  Fratres  Arvales,  and  the  Mithraic 
cult.  On  the  other  hand,  we  are  initiated  into 
some  secrets  of  the  wealth  and  prestige  of  the 
Roman  Church,  when  we  see  how  the  families 
of  the  Aurelii,  Flori,  Uranii,  Dasumii,  Petronii, 
Csecilii,  and  Secundi  embraced  the  Christian  doc- 
trines and  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  Pope  the 
wealth  inherited  from  long  lines  of  pagan  ancestors. 
The  theologian  finds  tidbits  for  himself  in  the 
new  and  unique  vindication  of  Liberius  by  means 


422       THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS. 

of  an  epitaph,  in  the  many  antiquarian  references 
to  the  cultus  of  the  Blessed  Virgin  and  to  the  in- 
stitution of  the  consecrated  virgins,  in  the  sohd 
inscriptional  proofs  of  the  invocation  of  the  saints, 
the  veneration  of  the  martyrs,  whose  autographs, 
trials,  life  in  the  mines,  and  proselytizing  zeal  are 
all  exhibited  to  us  as  in  a  mirror.  The  lawyer 
reads  with  avidity  the  notes  on  associations  at 
Rome,  on  the  law  covering  burials,  on  the  sepul- 
chral jurisdiction  of  the  pagan  pontiffs,  and  of 
the  delimitation  of  public  and  private  domain. 
There  is  strong  food  for  the  patrologist  in  the 
studies  on  the  Philosophoumena,  and  for  the  his- 
torian in  the  numerous  notices  of  ancient  MSS. 
and  the  contents  of  old  archives  and  libraries. 

Here  one  may  find,  in  distracting  confusion, 
accounts  of  old  archaeologists  and  necrologies  of 
later  ones,  summaries  of  standard  publications 
on  archseological  subjects,  and  descriptions  of 
Christian  museums,  notably  that  of  the  Lateran. 
The  arts  and  the  artists  of  the  Middle  Ages,  es- 
pecially those  of  Rome,  their  Uhlia  pauperum  and 
their  elegant  mosaics,  their  tessellated  pavements 
and  the  slender  grace  of  their  campanili,  tempted 
him  at  times  from  the  strict  limits  he  had  set  him- 
self; he  even  wandered  into  the  preserves  of  the 
Renaissance  occasionally,  and  always  returned  with 


THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS,     423 

fresh  laurels,  envied  by  the  masters  in  those  de- 
partments. 

De  Rossi  kept  a  watchful  eye  on  the  develop- 
ment of  Christian  antiquarian  science  the  world 
over.  Wherever  the  Christian  faith  had  left  its 
imprint  on  a  people,  there  must  be  more  or  less 
evidence  of  its  workings.  Thus  he  followed  every 
find  and  excavation  in  Africa,  Spain,  Egypt, 
Greece,  Sicily,  Germany,  France,  Italy,  and  the 
Orient,  ever  eager  to  add  to  the  treasures  of  Chris- 
tian remains.  In  this  manner  the  Bullettino  has 
become  a  great  thesaurus  for  the  study  of  early 
Christian  art,  and  there  is  many  a  ravishing  page 
in  it  on  ancient  crosses  and  medals,  on  rings  and 
spoons  with  Christian  sigla;  on  wine- jars  and  oil- 
bottles  marked  with  the  cross;  on  lamps  and  orna- 
mental fishes;  on  Christian  jewel-boxes  and  eucha- 
ristic  plates  found  as  far  away  as  Siberia;  on  the 
trinkets  of  a  Christian  empress  and  the  collar  of 
a  Christian  slave;  on  chalices  and  medal  moulds, 
combs,  bells,  fragments  of  a  marble  lattice  to  sep- 
arate the  sexes  in  church;  leaden  plaques  with  exor- 
cisms, and  a  multitude  of  odds  and  ends  of  a 
Christian  life  and  culture  that  have  utterly  per- 
ished save  for  these  traces.  Was  ever  more  deli- 
cate homage  paid  to  a  religion  than  this  pious  re- 
tracting of  the  smallest  vestiges  of  the  past? 


424        THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS. 

"La  pianta  uomo  cresce  piu  rohusta  in  Italia 
che  altrove  net  mondo/'  says  Alfieri;  and  De  Rossi 
is  a  proof  of  it.  The  same  man  who  delved  in 
the  bowels  of  the  earth  for  the  annals  of  the  relig> 
ious  past  was  also  one  of  the  scribes  of  the  Vati- 
can library.  Indeed,  he  was  the  dean  of  the  lit- 
tle body  of  those  Vatican  Scriptores,  who  recall 
the  monastico-literary  brotherhoods  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  and  the  notaries,  who  have  ever  surrounded 
the  Bishop  of  Rome  from  the  very  earliest  days 
of  Christianity.  The  cataloguing  of  the  Vatican 
archives  is  an  almost  superhuman  task;  it  has 
been  some  centuries  in  execution.  The  last  six 
of  the  great  folios,  which  contain  the  index  as  far 
as  it  is  completed,  are  the  work  of  De  Rossi's  hand 
and  brain.  I  say  brain,  for  it  is  no  small  task  to 
read  over  thousands  of  manuscripts,  often  in  the 
most  wretched  disorder,  dispose  them,  describe 
them  in  scientific  language,  assign  them  to  their 
proper  epoch,  note  the  peculiarities  which  dis- 
tinguish them,  and  the  like.*    That  is  a  work  de- 


^Codicutn  Laiinorum  BibliotheccB  VaticaiKs.  Tomus  x., 
opera  et  studio  J.  B.  De  Rossi,  scriptore  linguae  latinse,  adju- 
tore  Odoardo  Marehetti. 

Pars  i.  (Nos.  7245-8066) ;  Pars.  ii.  (8067-8471).  Tomus  xi. 
(8472-9019),  operam  conferentibus  Paolo  Scapaticci  scriptore 
linguae  Syriacae  et  Al.  Vincenzi  scriptore  linguae  Hebraicae. 
Tomus   xii.    (9020-9445):    Tomus   xiii.    (9446-9849).     Indices 


THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS.       425 

manding  iron  nerves  and  self-control  no  less  than 
the  most  varied  acquisitions  and  a  critical  acu- 
men of  the  rarest  kind.  A  double  series  of  the 
Latin  and  Greek  codices  has  already  begun  to  issue 
from  the  Vatican  press.  Of  the  former,  the  Pala- 
tine (Heidelberg)  manuscripts  are  the  first  to  be 
codified  in  printed  form.  The  two  Stevensons, 
father  and  son,  were  charged  with  the  work,  and 
De  Rossi  has  contributed  an  admirable  sketch  of 
the  origin,  evolution,  and  strange  vicissitudes  of  the 
Vatican  Library  and  Archives  from  the  dim  da^vn- 
ing  of  the  power  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome  down  to 
the  time  of  Innocent  IIL*  The  rest  of  the  history 
of  the  library  has  been  told  by  Father  Ehrle  in 
his  history  of  its  transfer  to  and  return  from 
Avignon,  and  the  story  of  the  Archives  in  the  last 
three  centuries  has  been  amply  reviewed  by  M. 
Gachard,  a  Belgian  scholar. 


tomonim  xi.,  xii.,  xiii.,  codicum  Latinorum  Bibliothecae  Vati- 
caii£e  cura  et  studio  J.  B.  De  Rossi,  adjutore  Josepho  Gatti, 
Pars  I.  Index  auctorum,  etc.  Pars.  II.  Index  rerum  locorum, 
hominum,  etc.  This  huge  manuscript  inventory  includes 
the  Latin  manuscripts  added  to  the  archives  since  the  begin- 
ning of  this  century.  Copied  in  splendid  calligraphy,  it  serves 
the^daily  needs  of  the  scholars  who  come  to  the  archives  from 
all  parts  of  the  world. 

^De  origine,  historia,  indicihus  scrinii  et  bibliotheca:  Sedis 
AvostoUcce.  Romfc,  1886.  Published  as  preface  (pp.  i.-cxxxii.) 
to  the  first  volume  of  the  printed  Catalogue  of  Vatican  Latm 
MSS.  {BMiotheca  Apostolica  Vatimna:  Codices  Lahni). 


426         THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS. 

Few  things  strike  the  visitor  to  Rome  more 
forcibly  than  the  great  and  solemn  mosaics  of  the 
Byzantine  type  which  are  to  be  seen  in  the  oldest 
of  the  Roman  churches.  The  art  of  mosaic  is 
a  peculiarly  Christian  product,  and,  as  such,  could 
not  fail  to  engage  the  attention  of  such  an 
enthusiast  for  Christian  art  as  De  Rossi.  He 
began  and  ,  carried  on  almost  to  completion  the 
publication,  in  large  folio  volumes,  of  magnificent 
chromo-lithographs  of  the  Roman  Church  mosaics 
prior  to  the  fifteenth  century.  The  collection 
is  entitled  Musaici  delle  Chiese  di  Roma.^  Al- 
ready twenty-three  numbers  of  this  unequalled 
work  have  been  issued.  Their  price,  however, 
puts  them-  beyond  the  reach  of  ordinary  purses. 
There  is  no  keener  delight  for  the  student  of  the 
past  than  to  turn  over  these  wonderful  sheets 
filled  with  figures  of  noble  gravity.  The  enthroned 
Christ,  the  adoring  elders,  apostles,  and  saints, 
the  allegorical  lambs,  running  waters,  palms,  etc., 
transport  us  almost  to  the  gates  of  paradise. 
We  forget  their  imperfections  for  the  sublime  se- 
renity and  recollection  of  these  strange  figures  that 
haunt  us  forever  from  their  station  in  the  apses 

^  Musaici  delle  Chiese  di  Roma  anteriori  al  secolo  XV.  Roma 
Spithover,  1872-1892,  Con  testo  bilingue,  italiano-francese: 
grandi  tavole   cromolitografiche    (fasciculi   i.-xxiii). 


THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS.      427 

or  on  the  facades,  confessions;  arches,  and  porches 
of  Rome's  oldest  basilicas  and  churches. 

The  minor  writings  of  De  Rossi  cover  a  very- 
wide  field.  His  literary  activity  was  of  the  most 
miscellaneous  kind,  though  its  objects  were  by  no 
means  heterogeneous;  on  the  contrary,  he  always 
kept  well  within  the  lines  of  classic  and  Christian 
antiquarian  culture.^  He  was  one  of  the  mixed 
commission  which  brought  out  the  fine  edition 
of  the  works  of  Bartolomeo  Borghesi,  by  order 
of  Napoleon  III.,  and  his  intimate  friendship  with 
the  great  numismatist  enabled  him  to  draw  from 
their  correspondence  much  material  for  the  eluci- 
dation of  the  knotty  questions  concerning  the 
coins  and  inscriptions  treated  of  in  these  splendid 
folios.^  Valuable  contributions  from  the  pen  of 
De  Rossi  are  scattered  through  dozens  of  Italian 
and  foreign  learned  periodicals  and  newspapers. 
Gatti  counted,  in  1892,  over  three  hundred  such 
essays,  notes,  reviews,  and  the  like,  from  a  few 
pages  in  length  to  full  book  size.     How  much  more 


1  His  disciple,  Prof.  Gatti,  has  drawn  up  a  chronological 
series  of  his  minor  writings,  which  is  to  be  found  in  the  Album 
of  1892.  A  full  catalogue  of  all  the  known  works  that  issued 
from  the  pen  of  De  Rossi  would  fill  over  twenty-five  closely 
printed  folio   pages. 

2  GEuvres  Completes  di  Bartolomeo  Borghesi,  vols,  i.-ix.  Paris, 
1862-1884. 


428         THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS. 

of  the  kind  is  scattered  throughout  his  voluminous, 
well-ordered  correspondence  of  over  ten  thousand 
numbers!  He  was  inimitable  in  the  art  of  pre- 
senting the  rarest  information  in  terse,  clear,  and 
limpid  language,  without  seeking  any  other 
pathos  than  what  naturally  arose  from  the  state- 
ment of  unadorned  truths,  long  denied,  but  at  last 
vindicated.  He  seemed  to  have  reached  at  one 
stride  a  certain  perfection  in  these  antiquarian 
essays,  as  any  one  may  see  who  will  compare  his 
early  treatises  on  The  Christian  Inscriptions  of 
Carthage  and  On  the  Christian  Monuments  that  hear 
the  figure  of  a  fish,  with  his  later  saggi  on  the  can- 
cellation from  an  inscription  of  the  naine  of  a  ves- 
tal virgin  become  a  Christian,  on  the  find  of  Anglo- 
Saxon  coins  in  the  Roman  Forum,  on  the  mag- 
nificent Codex  Amiatinus,  or  Bible  of  Ceolfrid, 
and  on  the  capsella  argentea  Africana,  or  silver 
work-box  found  at  Carthage  and  presented  to  Leo 
XIII.  by  Cardinal  Lavigerie. 

He  was  not  merely  a  writer,  an  excavator,  a 
hunter  of  Christian  curios  and  oddments.  The 
organizing  talent  was  strong  in  him.  Insensibly 
he  drew  men  about  him  and  assigned  them  tasks, 
by  the  fulfilment  of  which  they  have  grown  great 
in  the  world  of  letters.  He  thoroughly  under- 
stood the  value  of  modern  expositions  and  con- 


THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS.      429 

gresses,  and  the  need  of  giving  forth  to  the  people 
the  safe  conclusions  of  the  scholar.  At  London 
and  Paris  he  exhibited  plans  of  the  catacombs, 
and  would  have  done  the  same  at  Chicago  if  age 
and  infirmities  did  not  prevent  him.  The  late 
international  scientific  congresses  of  Catholics  had 
no  better  friend  than  this  old  archaeologist.  He 
understood  well  their  spirit  and  their  trend,  and 
contributed  to  those  of  Paris  (1888,  1891)  the 
primeurs,  or  advance  sheets,  of  his  studies  on  the 
Cemetery  of  Priscilla,  long  his  favorite  field  of 
labor,  and  in  which  the  holy  martyrs  finally  ob- 
tained for  him  some  of  the  sweetest  delights  that 
a  Christian  scholar  can  hope  to  experience.^  It 
is  scarcely  possible  to  read  with  dry  eyes  the  nar- 
rative of  that  long  pursuit  of  fifty  years  crowned 
with  such  final  success.  In  his  language,  bristling 
with  technical  terms,  there  is  an  intensity  of  de- 
votion, an  impatient  directness  of  zeal,  which  be- 
tray the  Christian  investigator  as  he  tears  off  the 
heart  of  his  mystery  the  last  thin  shroudings,  and 
knows  now  what  hitherto  he  firmly  believed.  There 
are  few  higher  joys— certainly  none  more  exquisite. 
The  strained  relations  between  the  Vatican  and 
the  new  governors  of  Italy  gave  this  quiet  scholar 


^  These  studies  are  found  in  the  Comjptes  rendus  of  the  con- 
gresses, and  in  substance  in  the  Bulletiino. 


430        THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS. 

more  than  one  occasion  to  do  good  in  a  lasting 
though  unostentatious  way.  Of  late  years  an- 
cient Christian  monuments  at  Rome  and  elsewhere 
in  Italy  have  been  in  great  danger  of  destruction 
or  defacement  from  the  ignorance  or  ill-will  of 
the  actual  authorities.  The  world-wide  fame  of 
De  Rossi  enabled  him  to  interfere  on  several  occa- 
sions, and  with  success,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
Churches  of  the  Quattro  Coronati  at  Rome  and  of 
St.  Severano  at  Naples.  It  is  mainly  to  his  labor 
and  skill  that  we  owe  the  Christian  Museum  of 
the  Lateran,  one  of  the  most  fascinating  collec- 
tions in  Europe.  The  idea,  it  is  true,  cropped 
out  frequently  during  the  last  century,  and  vari- 
ous attempts  were  made  to  make  the  Vatican 
the  centre  for  all  such  monuments.  But  under 
Gregory  XVI.,  and  later  under  Pius  IX.,  the 
Lateran  palace  was  set  aside  for  this  grand 
enterprise,  which  was  set  in  motion  by  Padre 
Marchi,  and  has  since  been  conducted  by  his  more 
illustrious  disciple.  In  this  great  multitude  of 
ancient  Christian  objects,  nothing  is  more  strik- 
ing or  more  valuable  than  the  long  lines  of  Chris- 
tian epitaphs  and  inscriptions,  arranged  in  chron- 
ological and  logical  order,  and  illustrating,  with 
undeniable  veracity,  the  beliefs  of  the  primitive 
Roman  Christians,  their  disciphne,  rites,  manners, 


THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS.       431 

and  habits  of  life.  In  1877  there  were  known 
over  15,000  such  monumenta  litterata,  whole  or 
broken,  and  De  Rossi  then  asserted,  in  a  public 
discourse,  that  their  number  grew  at  the  rate  of 
five  hundred  a  year/ 

De  Rossi  was  never  a  professor,  but  one  will 
look  in  vain  for  a  nearer  approach  in  our  day  to 
the  old  Hellenic  teachers  or  the  great  scholastics 
of  the  Middle  Ages,  who  lived  in  the  tenderest 
intimacy  with  their  pupils.  His  real  chair  was  in 
the  depths  of  the  catacombs  or  in  the  Lateran  gal- 
leries, where  he  practised  his  ingenious  p.aievriKr}^ 
like  Socrates  on  the  banks  of  the  Ilissos  or  in  the 
streets  of  Athens,  and  forced  the  choicest  minds 
to  disengage  for  themselves  the  true  spiritual 
realities  that  lay  wrapped  up  with  the  fragments 
of  epitaphs  and  the  smoke-stained  frescoes  of  those 
mysterious  cities  of  the  dead.  He  was  always 
surrounded  by  a  little  cosmopolitan  circle  of  men, 
drawn  to  Rome  by  the  fame  of  the  great  scholar. 
He  met  them  off-hand  in  the  streets,  at  home,  on 
his  walks,  in  the  catacombs,  at  the  Lateran  or  at 
St.  Peter's.  If  teaching  be  the  development  of  the 
human  faculties  through  the  effusion  of  acquired 
information,  and  the  best  method  and  incitement 
be  the  simple  exhibition  of  the  professor's  own 
» n  Miiseo  Epigrafico  Cristiano  Pio-Lateranense.    Roma,  1877. 


432        THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS. 

way  of  gaining  knowledge,  then  De  Rossi  was  one 
of  the  greatest  teachers  of  any  age,  and  the  grass- 
grown  ruins  of  Christian  Rome  were  his  Portico. 
He  fastened  to  himself  with  hoops  of  steel  men 
of  the  extremest  religious  and  national  tendencies — 
Mommsen  and  Duchesne,  Henzen  and  Bruzza. 
The  English  Stevensons  and  American  Frothing- 
hams,  Danes,  Russians,  Austrians,  Orientals,  came 
in  turn  to  experience  welcome  and  instruction 
from  this  patriarch  of  Roman  antiquities.  He 
was  a  type  of  the  true  broadness  and  the  sohdly 
liberal  sentiments  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church, 
which  seeks  on  all  sides  the  eternal  truth  and  holds 
fast  to  it  in  all  earnestness  and  charity.  For  years 
he  conducted  the  public  meetings  of  the  Society 
for    Christian    Archaeology  ^    and    the    Venerators 

^  The  valuable  proceedings  of  this  body  of  disciples  and 
admirers  of  De  Rossi  have  been  for  some  years  published  in 
the  Bullettino,  and  form  one  of  its  chief  attractions.  The 
monthly  meetings  of  the  society  usually  draw  many  learned 
strangers  and  exercise  a  salutary  influence  on  the  study  of 
Christian  antiquities.  The  Collegium  Cultorum  Sanctorum 
Marty  rum  has  its  seat  near  the  Vatican  at  the  German  Campo 
Santo,  where  is  situate  a  community  of  scholars  who  dwell  on 
the  very  site  that  Charlemagne  acquired  as  a  burial-place  for 
his  Franks  who  died  at  Rome.  Among  the  writer's  most 
pleasant  souvenirs  are  the  gentle  courtesies  and  kindly  helps 
which  he  once  received  from  these  gentlemen,  several  of  whom 
are  among  the  best  Christian  antiquarians  of  to-day.  It  would 
be  odious  to  distinguish,  but  the  names  of  Monsignori  de  Waal, 
Wilpert,  and  Kirsch  deserve  a  special  mention. 


THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS.       433 

of  the  Holy  Martyrs,  and  during  the  Roman  sea- 
son he  might  be  heard  once  a  month  expounding 
in  the  catacombs,  or  within  some  ruinous  old  ba- 
silica of  historic  martyrs,  before  a  motley  crowd  of 
sight-seers  and  pilgrims,  the  plans,  the  curiosities, 
or  the  history  of  this  weird  subterranean  world. 

"De  sculptore,  pictore,  fusore,  judicare  nisi  arti- 
fex  non  'potest, ^^  says  the  younger  Pliny.  Only  one 
who  approached  De  Rossi  in  phenomenal  acquisi- 
tions could  fitly  judge  of  him  as  a  savant.  The 
preceding  pages  are  some  witness  to  the  extent  of 
his  antiquarian  knowledge,  but  no  mere  tale  of 
his  writings  can  convey  a  just  idea  of  that  mind, 
in  which  all  the  treasures  of  antique  and  mediaeval 
culture  were  stored  up  with  order  and  distinction. 
He  had  read  every  ancient  author  of  the  Greek, 
and  Latin  world,  whether  pagan  or  Christian,  and 
properly  allocated  what  each  conveyed  toward 
his  main  object — the  illustration  of  the  origins  of 
the  Christian  Church  in  the  period  of  Grseco-Roman 
civilization.  Before  him  others  had  gone  over 
the  same  field,  but  none  with  the  same  method 
and  the  same  good  fortune  in  the  discovery  of  the 
precious  wreckage  of  original  monuments.  The 
sum  of  the  written  remains  of  antiquity  has  been 
considerably  increased  in  this  century  by  happy 
finds  or  skilful  restoration.     Much  light  has  been 


434        THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS, 

thrown  on  them — on  the  one  hand  by  judicious 
criticism  and  tireless  research,  on  the  other  by 
marvellous  discoveries  in  the  Orient — discoveries 
which  do  not  redound  solely  to  the  credit  of  classic 
or  pagan  archaeology,  but  are  of  priceless  worth 
for  early  Christian  life,  literature,  and  belief.  De 
Rossi  was  contemporary  with  most  of  this  prog- 
ress, and  it  would  not  be  too  bold  to  say  that 
he  was  intimately  acquainted  with  every  item 
of  it  that  in  any  way  interested  the  history  of  the 
city  of  Rome,  the  catacombs,  the  ancient  Chris- 
tian literature,  and  the  growth  of  Christian  art. 

As  an  investigator  in  new  provinces  of  learning 
he  was  distinguished  by  his  scientific  probity  and 
modesty.  He  was  strictly  honest  in  his  method 
and  in  its  application,  never  trying  to  gloss  over 
weak  points  and  never  claiming  for  his  arguments 
a  cogency  they  did  not  possess.  Nor  did  he  at- 
tempt to  read  into  his  authorities  conclusions 
that  they  did  not  justify.  On  the  other  hand, 
he  was  fearless  and  frank  in  maintaining  what  he 
recognized  as  the  truth,  and  did  not  let  himself 
be  frowned  down  by  pompous  or  malicious  ig- 
norance. His  style  was  plain  and  direct,  devoid 
of  ornament — a  very  model  of  historic  narrative. 
The  fulness  of  his  learning,  the  aptness  of  his 
illustration,  the  ingenuity  of  his  parallel  and  com- 


THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS.      435 

ment,    lent    a    strange    eloquence    to    expositions 
otherwise  dry  and  solemn  as  a  column  of  figures. 
The  Latin  of  De  Rossi  is  grave,  elegant,  translu- 
cent,   racy.    It    breathes    strong    with    repressed 
feeUng;    it  moves  like  the  discourse   of  a  judge, 
convinced   where   lies   the   truth,   but   anxious   to 
deal  fairly  with  both  sides;   it  is  the  speech  of  one 
bred  to  the  law,  but  whose  mind  dwells  with  de- 
light upon  the  masterpieces  of  the  golden  Latinity. 
It  is  the  easy,  correct,  elegantly  familiar  Latin  of 
the  fine  Itahan  scholar,  equally  removed  from  the 
stilted  involved  speech    of    his  Teuton  colleagues 
and  the  straight  discourse  and  irreverent  brevity 
of  certain  English  Latinists.     Some  of  the  prefaces 
to  his  great  works  will  hve  long  in  the  memories 
of  all  who  love  the  large  and  flowing  language  of 
Latium,   its  superb  majesty,   its  inimitable  grace, 
richness,  and   precision,  its   religious   gravity,    and 
its  memorable   annals   of   conquest,   temporal   and 
spiritual.     De    Rossi    was   not    without    his   trials, 
and  his  labors  were  at  times  misrepresented;    but 
he  found  a  firm  protector  in  the  Papacy,  as  is  il 
lustrated  by  more  than  one  little  anecdote 
circulates  among  his  friends  and  admir 
uncharitable    controversy    pained    his    i 
rated  with  the  sweet  religious  peace  of  the  iioi> 
places  in  which  he  spent  so  many  days  and  nights 


436        THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS. 

among  the  martyr  dead  who  await  the  resmrection 
call.  In  this  respect  he  was,  indeed,  sine  felle  pa- 
lumhus.  Though  a  man  of  firm  Catholic  faith, 
he  was  supremely  amiable  and  courteous  in  his 
dealings  with  the  many  who  did  not  share  his  be- 
lief, and  among  his  sincerest  mourners  are  men 
of  the  most  extreme  rationalistic  training  and 
views.  He  was  a  man  of  principle,  faithful  and 
devoted,  known  to  the  inner  circle  of  cosmopolitan 
Rome  as 

"The  kindest  friend, 
The  best  condition'd  and  unwearied  spirit 
In  doing  courtesies,  and  one  in  whom 
The  ancient  Roman  honor  more  appears 
Than  any  that  draws  breath  in  Italy." 

Livy  says,  somewhere,  that  in  studying  antiquity 
the  soul  becomes  antique  almost  without  an  effort. 
And  De  Rossi  had  so  long  studied  the  growth  and 
vicissitudes  of  papal  Rome  that  his  soul  became 
drenched  with  loyalty  to  that  race  of  mighty  rulers 
who  carried,  and  yet  carry  on  within  its  walls, 
the  government  of  a  world  many  times  greater 
than  had  ever  ambitioned  the  proudest  Csesar. 
The  path  of  earthly  honor  was  open  to  him  had 
he  chosen  to  abandon  the  Vatican. 

"U'siede  il  successor  del  maggior  Piero." 


THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS.      437 

But  no  temptation  could  corrupt  his  fine  sense 
of  honor,  and  he  remained  until  death  faithful 
to  the  successor  of  Peter  and  Fabian  and  Damasus 
and  Vigilius.  His  Roman  lineage  was  a  matter 
of  just  pride  to  him,  and  he  sat  for  years  in  the 
Roman  municipality  as  the  protector  of  the  old 
local  interests  of  the  city  and  the  one  scholar- 
tribune  whose  veto  even  the  fiercest  of  the  new 
iconoclasts  felt  bound  to  respect.  As  long  as  men 
care  for  the  history  of  the  Eternal  City;  as  long 
as  her  basilicas,  her  cemeteries,  her  museums,  and 
her  varied  literature  interest  them,  so  long  will 
they  recall  the  gentle  and  erudite  spirit  whose 
magic  touch  shed  a  white  light  upon  all  the  old 
monuments  of  Rome,  and  whose  scientific  fiat 
caused  the  rubbish  of  ages  to  disappear,  and  gave 
over  to  the  pilgrims  of  a  new  time  and  culture  the 
roads  and  pathways  closed  for  over  a  thousand 
years.  Like  some  great  mediaeval  architects,  he 
finished  none  of  the  colossal  enterprises  that  he 
began;  but  his  methods,  example,  and  principles 
are  perenduring,  and  have  revolutionized  archae- 
ological studies  for  many  a  year  to  come,  while 
a  generation  of  his  youngest  disciples  will  pass 
away  before  the  Collectanea  of  the  master  are 
exhausted. 

Memoria    bene    redditoe    vitce    semjnterna.    There 


438        THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS. 

is  a  pure,  serene,  altruism  in  certain  lives  whose 
laborious  course  has  been  kept  in  steady  orienta- 
tion to  truth  and  beauty  and  goodness.  Nor  do 
we  need  to  hear  a  George  Eliot  preach, 

"The  choir  invisible 
Of  those  immortal  dead  who  live  again 
In  lives  made  better  by  their  presence, 
And  make  undying  music  in  the  world, 
Breathing  us  beauteous  order  that  controls 
With  growing  sway  the  growing  life  of  man." 

Between  the  true  doctrines  of  Catholicism  and 
the  natm-al  aspirations  and  convictions  of  the 
human  heart  there  is  just  such  a  minute,  accurate, 
and  catholic  congruism  as  we  should  expect  from 
the  Divine  Founder  of  that  religion.  Beneficent 
lives,  however  short,  never  melt  into  the  general 
void,  but  shed  forever  a  sweet  aroma  within  the 
circle  of  their  rememberers.  This  is  the  basis 
of  the  Communion  of  Saints,  and  it  is  broad 
enough  to  justify  not  only  the  interest  of  the 
blessed  ones  in  our  lives  and  their  ever-present 
influences,  but  also  the  imbroken  operation  in 
human  affairs  of  all  choice  spirits  who  have  ever 
uplifted  humanity  or  straightened  out  its  tor- 
tuous pathway.  So  Dante  saw  (Inf.  iv.  116-120) 
on  the  greensward  outside  the  air  that  trembled 
over  the  fatal  abyss,  the  pagan  just,  whose  writings 
and  great  deeds  yet  have  power  to  sway  the  souls 
of  men: 


THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS.      439 

*'In  luogo  aperto,  luminoso,  ed  alto, 
Si  che  veder  si  potean  tutti  e  quantif 
Cold  diritto,  sopra  il  verde  smalto 
Mi  fur  mostrati  gli  spiriti  magni, 
Che  del  vederli  in  me  stesso  n'esalto." 

Homer  and   Socrates,   and  Plato  and   Aristotle, 
the  martyrs  and  the  doctors,  and  the  great  pilot- 
bishops   in   the   Wandering    of   the    Nations;     the 
liberty    and    justice-loving    Popes    and    priests    of 
the  Middle  Ages;   the  builders  of  Cologne  and  the 
Sainte  Chapelle,   and  the  founders  of  the  Italian 
republics;     Dante,    and    Columbus,   and   Joan    of 
Arc;    Milton   and   Shakespeare — all   these  live   on 
forever  in  the  hearts  of  men,  in  a  sort  of  earthly 
apotheosis — household    divinities    that    shield    our 
spiritual  hearths  from  a  hundred  devastating  phi- 
losophies and  corrupting  examples,  and  preach,  in 
season  and  out,  the  lessons  of  patience,  unselfish- 
ness, mutual  helpfulness,  enduring  enthusiasm  and 
high   idealism — in    other   words,   that    pure    natu- 
ral   religion    which    is    the    basis    of    Christianity, 
and  which  has  been  so  long  saturated  with  the 
light  of   the   latter  that  in  its  upper  strata  it  is 
scarcely    distinguishable    from    the    revelation    of 
Jesus.    To  this  select  assembly  belongs  henceforth 
John  Baptist  De  Rossi— an  example,   an  inspira- 
tion, an  index,  a  complete  and  rounded  specimen 
of  the  union  of  learning  and  religion.    Surely  his 


440        THE  COLUMBUS  OF  THE  CATACOMBS. 

many  merits  won  for  him  a  speedy  entrance  into 
the  heaven  he  worked  for,  and  we  may  well  believe 
that  the  last  clouds  of  ignorance  were  quickly  re- 
moved from  his  noble  mind,  and  that 

"The  great  Intelligences  fair 
That  range  above  our  mortal  state. 
In  circle  round  the  blessed  gate, 
Received  and  gave  him  welcome  there, 

"And  led  him  through  the  blissful  climes, 
And  show'd  him  in  the  fountain  fresh 
All  knowledge  that  the  sons  of  flesh 
Shall  gather  in  the  cycled  times." 


ALPHABETICAL  INDEX. 


Abgars,    Christian    kings    of 

Edessa,  32 
Acts  of  Paul  and  Thecla,  165 
Advent,  earliest  notice  of,  143 
Africa,    Roman    conquest    of, 
326,     328 ;      administration 
of,   329;    Roman  cities  in, 
345 ;  Roman  legions  in,  332, 
334;    Roman  literature  of, 
352;    prosperity  of  Roman, 
336,  340;    and  Rome,  338; 
French  excavations  and  ex- 
plorations in,  359 
Agnes,  Saint,  181 
Alexandria,  Christians  in,  232 
Ammianus,  Marcellinus,  142 
Angels,  cultus  of,  284 
Antioch,  Christians  at,  229 
Apostles,     character    of,     20; 
leave  Jerusalem,  22 ;  rapidity 
of  missionary  conquest,  23, 
184,  219,  242;    genuineness 
of  Acts,  24;   secrets  of  suc- 
cess, 27 ;  and  Roman  world, 
35;    difficulties  and  obsta- 
cles, 37,  41,  49;  and  episco- 
pal office,  91 
Apostolic  Constitutions,  285 
Apuleius,    education  of,    353; 

metamorphoses  of,  354 
Arabia,  Christians  in,  235 
Archaeology,  first  students  of 

Christian,  368 
Architecture,    Byzantine    ori- 
gins of  Gothic,  308 
Archives,   Vatican,   365,   370, 
371,  424 


Aristotle,    on    the    place    of 

woman,  175 
Armenia,  Christians  in,  233 
Arnold,  Matthew,  50 
Art,  Greek,  decay  of,  28 
Asia  Minor,  Christians  in,  227 
Associations,     Christian,     for 

burial,  261 
Attains  the  Christian,  113 
Azarias,  Brother,  132 

Baths,  Christians  use  public, 

284 
Bercea,  women  of,  160 
Bishops,   early  Christian,   91, 

245,  307 
Blandina,  sublime  courage  of 

martyr,  112 
Bosio,  Antonio,  366,  402,  406 
Boissier,  Gaston,  313,  358,  360 
Brethren  of  the  Lord,  97 
Britain,  Christians  in,  225 
Browning,  Mrs.,  37 

Calendar,  earliest  Roman 
church,  411;  Philocalian, 
141,  411 

Campagna,  Roman,  365,  366 

Canon  law,  spirit  of  primitive, 
90 

Carthage,  storv  of,  320 ;  splen- 
dor of,  325; 'and  Rome,  324; 
fall  of,  326 

Catacombs,  history  of,  402, 
415;  study  of,  400;  liturgy 
in,  405 

Catalogue,  Liberian,  412 


441 


442 


ALPHABETICAL  INDEX, 


Catholicism,  value  of  its  his- 
tory, 183;  and  Graeco- 
Roman  society,  185 

Census  of  Judea,  140 

Children,  Jesus  Christ  and,  157 

Christianity,  triumphs  of,  38, 
49;  and  apostolic  succession, 
91, 101';  second-century  mis- 
sionaries of,  39,;  in  Italy  and 
Gaul,  40;  among  Kelts  and 
Britons,  40,  118;  and  the 
Roman  nobility,  50,  53,  161, 
178,  180,  218,  421 1;  and 
woman,  167 ;  and  the  family, 
203};  third-century  condi- 
tions of,  212;  spread  of,  in 
Orient,  226?;  in  the  West, 
219;  quasi-legal  organiza- 
tion of,  254;  and  Roman 
senate,  29,  100;  and  Roman 
emperors,  38,  52;  and  Roman 
world,  105;  constituent  ele- 
ments of,  239';  rapid  diffu- 
sion, reasons  of,  27,  242 

Christians,  number  of,  about 
A.D.  300,  238 

Christmas  Day,  origin  of  feast, 
144j  earliest  evidences  for, 
140;  three  Masses  on,  149; 
earliest  legends  of,  151 

Chronology,  beginnings  of 
Christian,  393 

Church,  and  the  Roman  Em- 
pire, 183,  214,  216';  earUest 
constitution  of,  89 

Church  feasts,  public  func- 
tions of,  152;  spiritual  pur- 
pose of,  154 

Churches,  primitive  Christian, 
241,296"  ornamentation  of , 
294 

Colonies,  Roman  military,  332; 
agricultural,  342  ^ 

Commerce,  Phoenician,  in- 
fluence of,  318 

Commodianus,  Carmen  Apolo- 
geticum,  357 

Communion  of  saints,  438 

Constantine  the  Great,  52 

Councils,  Nicsea,  1423   Elvira, 


224;  Aries,  222;  Rome,  222 ^ 
pseudo,  of  Sinuessa,  221; 
Sardica,  222 ;  Csesarea,  140; 
Saragossa,  142 

Damasus,  Pope,  413 

Delattre,  Pere,  360 

De  Rossi,  John  Baptist,  edu- 
cation of,  364 ;  character  of, 
374,  434,  436,  439;  as  a 
writer,  375,  394,  420,  422, 
428;  learning  of,  385,  391, 
423,  433 ;  Latin  style  of,  435 ; 
as  a  teacher,  373,  429,  431 ; 
as  a  discoverer,  385,  404, 
407,  408,  416,  417;  and  the 
Catacombs,  365,  367,  369, 
374,  401,  403';  and  Chris- 
tian epigraphy,  382,  390; 
plan  of  Orbis  Christianus. 
395,  418;  Roma  Sotter- 
ranea  of,  402,  417;  BuUet- 
tino  of,  417,  418;  minor 
writings,  427;  devotion  to 
Eternal  City,  437 

De  Rossi,  Michele,  405 

Diocletian,  Christian  family  of, 
53 

Donatists,  138,  142,  222,  224 

Emperors,  Roman,  38,  52,  53, 

97 
Enthusiasm,      contagion      of 

apostolic,  33 
Epigraphv,  growth  of  science, 

376,     381;      materials     of 

Christian,    379 ;     difficulties 

of,    383;     development    of 

Christian,  398 
Epiphany,  earliest  mention  of, 

138 
Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  woman 

in,  160,  164 
Eucharist,  the  Holy,  31 

Faith,  objective  source  of 
apostolic,  27 

Gaul,  Christians  in,  225 
Gibbon,  Edward,  42 


ALPHABETICAL  INDEX, 


443 


Gifts,  charismatic,  32 

Hegesippus,  41,  97 

History,  charm  of  African,  312 

Inscriptions,  collections  of 
Latin,  386;  of  Christian, 
388,  396;  science  of  Chris- 
tian, 392;  Irish  collectors 
of,  392,  400 

Islam,  and  Christianity,  64 

Jesus  Christ,  apostolic  mem- 
ories of,  27;  and  little  chil- 
dren, 157;  and  the  martyrs 
in  prison,  190 

Kelts  and  early  Christianity, 
40,  118 

Lambesa,  military  colony  of, 
331 

Legislation,  anti  -  Christian, 
earliest  code  of,  52 

Liberty  of  conscience.  Chris- 
tians originate,  187,  198 

Libraries,  early  Christian,  296 

Literature,  Afro-Roman,  352, 
356;  Afro-Christian,  356 

Lyons,  primitive  Christians  of, 
104;  letter  of  martyrs,  107 

Manu,  Laws  of,  174 

Marcellinus,  Pope,  pretended 
fall  of,  220 

Marchi,  Padre,  368 

Marcus  Aurelius,  106 

Martyrologies,  Hieron5nnia- 
num,  410;  ancient  Syriac, 
148 

MartjTS,  the  Christian,  187; 
reason  of  their  sufferings, 
188,  189;  and  Last  Judg- 
ment, 197;  secret  of  resist- 
ance, 192;  enthusiasm  of, 
393;  and  Roman  society, 
195;  earlyRoman,  412,  415; 
in  African  mines,  343;  acts 
of,  106,  107;  sources  of 
martyrologies,  410,  414,  415; 


and    the    city    mobs,    108; 

and  city  prisons,  110;    and 

their  judges,    111;    College 

of  Venerators  of,  432 
Mass,  earliest  preface  of,  95 
Mines,   Christian  martyrs  in, 

343 
Mosaics,  Roman  church,  426 
Museum,    Christian    Lateran, 

430';  Christian  Vatican,  370 
Museums,  Renaissance  origin 

of,  380 

Newman,  Cardinal,  on  Gibbon, 

45 
Nicomedia,  Edicts  of,  211 
Noels,  Bible  of,  154 

Organization,  quasi-legal  form 

of  Christian,  257 
Origen,    leader    of    Christian 

proselytism,  247 

Paganism,  persistency  of,  199; 
impurities  of,  208;  its  mod- 
ern forms,  200 ;  and  modern 
literature,  201  §  detests  vir- 
ginity, 209 

Palestine,  Christians  in,  231 

Pax  Romana,  67 

Persecutions,  of  early  Chris- 
tians, 86;  nature  of,  185 
popular  origin  of,  197,  215 
cessation  of,  186,  188 
sources  of,  249s  legal  bases 
of,  252 

Persia,  Christians  in,  234 

Philippi,  women  of,  160 

Philocalus,  Furius  Dionysius, 
400,  411,  413 

Philosophv,  Greek,  impotency 
of,  26,  68 

Pilgrimages,  social  and  eco- 
nomic function  of,  305; 
early  Roman,  405 

Pilgrim-houses,  early  monas- 
tic, 300,  304 

Plato,  73 

Phny,  Younger,  letter  of,  32 


444 


ALPHABETICAL  INDEX. 


Polemius  Silvius,  almanac  of, 

414 
Popes,  primitive  Vatican  ceme- 
tery of,  409 ;  interpret  prim- 
itive   constitutions    of    the 
Church,  101;  inculcate  civil 
obedience,     98;      and     the 
Brethren  of  the  Lord,  97 1; 
authority  of,  89,  93 
Pothinus  of  Lyons,  113 
Prayer,    primitive    Christian, 

94,  143 
Prisca,  house  of,  160 
Proletariat,  Roman,  130 
Prophets,  primitive  Christian, 

243 
Proselytism,    Christian,    245, 
247,  250 

R6nan,  Ernest,  47 

Roman  Church,  letter  of,  to 
Church  of  Corinth,  81;  first 
to  celebrate  feast  of  Christ- 
mas, 139 ;  historico-liturgical 
literature  of,  414 

Rome,  imperial  growth  of,  12[; 
administrations  of,  16; 
world-citizenship  of,  18; 
sense  of  decay,  29;  sj)lendor 
of,  99;  132,  corruption  of, 
47,  178;  slavery  and  free 
labor  in,  121;  municipal 
system  of,  344;  civilizing 
function  of,  347;  and  civic 
generosity,  349 

Rule,  the  Golden,  204 

Sacramentaries,  Roman,  149 
Saint  Agnes,  181 

Bede,  140, 

Csesarius  of  Aries,  143 

Clement  of  Rome,  Epistle 
of,  81 ;  its  genuineness,  82, 
96;  and  Old  Testament, 
83;  and  the  theological 
sciences,  85 

John  Chrysostom,  sermon 
on  Christmas,  139 

Hippolytus,  Commentary  on 
Daniel.  141 


Ignatius  of  Antioch,  letters 

of,  30 
Irenseus  of  Lyons,  40,  41 
Paul  and    Roman    Church, 
37;     education     of,     58; 
character   of,    63,    64;    a 
world-teacher,  65,  69,  73 ; 
and  Jesus  Christ,  71 ;  and 
the    theological    sciences, 
74;    and  Christian  litera- 
ture, 75 ;  and  the  pastoral 
office,  76';    and  St.  Clem- 
ent of  Rome,  84 
Philip  of  Heraclea,  acts  of, 

138 
Peter,  chair  of,  146';  Roman 
memories  of,  98 
Saints  Peter  and  Paul,  sepul- 
chres of,  at  Rome,  98 
Saints,  reasons  for  cultus  of, 

207;  birthdays  of,  147 
Schools,  early  Christian,  296 
Sepulchres,  Christian,  in  Syria, 

285,  287 
Sibyls  and  Christmas,  153 
Slavery,  ancient  Roman,  121; 
ruins  free  labor,  125;    and 
the    proletariat,    127;     and 
the  Roman  Empire,  133 
Slaves,  number  of,  122;    zeal 

of  Christian,  249 
Syria,  Christians  in,  230;  topog- 
raphy of,  267;  in  Christian 
history,  275 ;  a  land  of  ruins, 
268;  deserted  Christian 
cities  of,  272,  274,  276,  279, 
298;  Christian  inscriptions, 
282,  288 

Taxation,  method  of  Roman, 

134 
Theophilus  of  Csesarea,  140 
Thessalonica,  women  of,  160 
Timgad,  in  Roman  Africa,  345 
Towers,  Svrian  origin  of  Chris- 
tian, 295,  299 

Vettius  Epagathus,  109 
Vigils,  origin  of,  150 
Voltaire  and  Gibbon,  44 


ALPHABETICAL  INDEX. 


445 


Woman,  in  Roman  world,  163, 
165;  at  Rome,  176,  179; 
among  the  Greeks,  174; 
among  the  Jews,  169;  in 
Egyptian  law,  170;  in  Mace- 
donian   law,    171  g     among 


the  Kelts,   171;    in   Judea, 
173;     in    the    Gospel,    158; 
primitive  Christian,  248 
Worship,  early  Christian,  306 

Zeal,  nature  of  apostolic,  27 


PRINTKD  BY  BKNZIGER  BROTHERS,  NEW  YORK. 


Date  Due 

N  fi    37 

D  7-'3' 

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BW1040  .S52 

The  beginnings  of  Christianity. 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 


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